title: The embodiment of beauty: Evidence from viewing Chinese concrete words and pictographs.
abstract: How is beauty embodied? According to the viewpoint of embodied cognition, the aesthetic processing of words or pictographs has roots in their referential archetypes. Four experiments tested whether the beauty of referential archetypes was routinely activated during the explicit and implicit aesthetic evaluations of the font structures of concrete Chinese words and pictographs in congruent or incongruent font colour. Results showed font structures of simplified Chinese words and pictographs were judged to be more beautiful when they referred to beautiful archetypes; and this pattern was reversed when they referred to ugly archetypes. Moreover, judgement was facilitated when font colour was congruent for Chinese words and pictographs referred to beautiful archetypes. For those referred to ugly archetypes, judgement was inhibited in congruent font colour but facilitated in incongruent font colour, suggesting aesthetic perceptions of the font structures of Chinese words and pictographs were derived from their referential natural objects. The spontaneous generation hypothesis of beauty is proposed to account for these findings.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xianyou
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xueru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Siyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Public Kindergarten of Guangzhou Government, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Shuxian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: College of Professional Study, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Suiyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Situ
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D001504:Beauty; D004954:Esthetics / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aesthetic evaluation; Embodied cognition; Font structures of Chinese words and pictographs; Referential archetype; Spontaneous generation hypothesis of embodied beauty