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The Experience of Beauty: Themes and Novel Avenues for Contemporary Empirical
Research
Minha Cho1, Rhett Diessner2, and Dacher Keltner1
1University of California Berkeley, 2Lewis-Clark State College and Bahá’í Institute of Higher
Education
Abstract
The current review seeks to provide groundwork for contemporary empirical research on the
experience of beauty. First, we begin with a concise summary of how, historically, philosophers
and scientists have tried to approach or define beauty. Then, more central to the current aim, we
present and discuss the correlates and potential consequences of the experience of beauty—
theme by theme. That is, we discuss how the extant findings and literatures (about beauty) can
converge into certain, notable themes, and then build upon and expand upon them to present or
raise novel, potential questions, propositions, or thoughts which await future examinations and
discussions. By doing so, the current article fundamentally aims to illuminate novel avenues for
contemporary empirical research on the (very) interesting psychology of beauty.
Keywords: affect, aesthetics, beauty, emotion, literature review
The Experience of Beauty: Themes and Novel Avenues for Contemporary Empirical
Research
How strange to live in a land where the worship of beauty and the passion of love are
considered infamous. I hate England. (Oscar Wilde)
Perhaps we have an ambivalent attitude towards beauty. We appreciate and savor
something that we genuinely find to be beautiful, but at the same time despise, look down upon,
or even morally condemn something that is “pretty but shallow” or “cheap, inauthentic
beauty”—often judging the aesthetic tastes of others (Faust et al., 2024). Yet we know at once
when we encounter a piece of art, a natural scenery, or a person that is “breathtakingly
beautiful.” But then again, things become complicated again, or rather vague when we are to
clearly define what exactly beauty is and what it really does to us (Miller et al., 2024; Pelowski
et al., 2016, 2024).
In the current article, we review advances from studies of (or at least related to) the
experience of beauty, theme by theme. While we do place an emphasis on findings from
empirical psychology, we, at the same time, try to embrace both theoretical and empirical studies
from across disciplines. We document and clarify how such extant findings and thoughts can
converge, and then further build upon them to at times state hypothetical propositions or
questions that await future empirical verifications and discussions. By doing so, we eventually
seek to illuminate potential, novel avenues for the contemporary empirical research on beauty.
A Very Concise History of Prior Approaches and Definitions
In a review by Reber et al. (2004), prior approaches to, or definitions of beauty (often
used interchangeably with the closely related term, aesthetic pleasure) are classified into three
major categories: the objectivist view, subjectivist view, and interactionist view. Objectivists,
dating back to Plato, defined beauty as the property of an object which causes a pleasurable
experience across different perceivers (Tatarkiewicz, 1970). This way of defining beauty tends
to imply the universality of beauty—regardless of historical, cultural contexts or individual
differences.
Subjectivists, including the Sophists, instead claimed that anything that pleases the senses
can be beautiful. Reflected in common expressions such as “beauty is in the eye of the
beholder,” the subjectivist definition of beauty is significantly more open to (or vulnerable to)
influences of various factors including historical change, cultural values, or individual
differences in taste, experience, or expertise (Özger & Choudhury, 2024; Palmer & Griscom,
2013).
And the interactionists moved beyond the aforementioned, strict dichotomy or distinction
between objective versus subjective beauty, and alternatively suggested an interactionist view.
They demonstrated that a sense of beauty emerges from the interaction between the properties of
the stimulus and the affective-cognitive processes which take place within the perceiver, in
relation to the stimulus (Ingarden, 1985; Merleau-Ponty, 1964; Reber et al., 2004). Affective
approaches to beauty—defining beauty as the subjective experience or feeling of aesthetic
pleasure caused by the interplay between the objective stimulus and the perceiver—mostly fall
under, or align with the interactionist view of beauty (Armstrong & Detweiler-Bedell, 2008; Cho
et al., 2024). Such approaches tend to integrate and embrace both the universal and
constructivist accounts in referring to what can be defined as beautiful (or as a “true” experience
of beauty).
The Experience of Beauty: Salient or Central Appraisals in
Background: The Appraisal-Tendency Framework
Building on cognitive appraisal theories and functional accounts of emotion, the
appraisal-tendency framework facilitated the exploration of how a specific, discrete emotion can
influence various processes (Lerner & Keltner, 2000). Prior, valence-based frameworks
(positive vs. negative) of emotion were relatively limited in specifying how different emotions of
similar valence (e.g., sadness, anger, and fear; all of negative valence) can have different, distinct
influences on, for example, judgment and choice (Bodenhausen, 1993; Clore et al., 1994; Forgas,
1995; Forgas & Bower, 1988; Schwarz, 2001; Schwarz & Clore, 2003).
The appraisal-tendency framework instead suggested that a range of cognitive
dimensions differentiate the experiences of different, distinct emotions, and that each emotion
triggers a set of responses (in physiology and behavior, for instance) that enables the individual
to effectively respond to the confronted events, problems, or opportunities (Frijda, 1986; Mauss
et al., 2005; Oatley & Jenkins, 1992). Utilizing this approach, we can explore the salient
appraisals and the related, various consequences of discrete emotions or affective experiences—
in this case, the experience of beauty (Cho et al., 2024; Cowen & Keltner, 2017; Shiota et al.,
2017).
Pleasure and Attention
Preceding the aforementioned, appraisal-tendency framework, Smith and Ellsworth
(1985) had classified the cognitive dimensions of appraisals into six major categories: certainty,
pleasantness, attentional activity, control, anticipated efforts, and responsibility. Among such
dimensions, empirical documentations tend to reveal that, despite individual differences, the
experience of beauty is generally a pleasant experience which tends to captivates the perceiver’s
attention (often a prolonged one; Bray & O’Doherty, 2007; Cho et al., 2024; Cohen et al., 2010;
Kawabata & Zeki, 2004; Kranz & Ishai, 2006; Ishai, 2007; Moll et al., 2006; O’Doherty et al.,
2003).
The fact that beautiful stimuli can seize the attention and focus of humans in a pleasant
way does align with evolutionary or functional accounts of beauty (Gazzaniga, 2008). For
instance, beautiful nature and the physical beauty of humans are among the most common, or at
least the most familiar elicitors of beauty in our lives (Cho et al., 2024). Both tend to signal (or
are related to) indicators which enable or facilitate human survival (safety or abundance) and
reproduction (symmetry, health, or fertility). Then, it can be considered as adaptive for humans
to have evolved to readily detect, pay attention to, and appreciate such stimuli.
The pleasure inherent in such experiences or processes may function as a reinforcement
device—leading or motivating us to again stay attentive to, and detect the beauty that has helped
human species to survive and reproduce for a very long time (though certain effects or
preferences may not be considered as politically correct or appropriate in our modern cultures).
Results from neuroimaging studies, wherein exposure to beautiful stimuli increased activations
in the medial orbitofrontal cortex—a brain region related to the processing or positive, pleasant
stimuli—tend to align with the aforementioned, functional accounts of beauty (Bray &
O’Doherty, 2007; Kawabata & Zeki, 2004; Kranz & Ishai, 2006; Ishai, 2007; Moll et al., 2006;
O’Doherty et al., 2003).
Balance and Harmony
Beyond the cognitive dimensions classified by Smith and Ellsworth (1985), empirical
studies of beauty suggest that the sense of balance and harmony is also central to the experience
of beauty (Cho et al., 2024; Dierkes, 1987; Scarry, 1999; Thömmes & Hübner, 2020). Indeed,
this sense of balance and harmony is presumably related to the (previously mentioned) pleasure
or pleasantness that is often inherent in our experiences of beauty.
While many studies have documented the importance of balance and harmony in eliciting
beauty (for a review on the topic, see Palmer et al., 2013), Palmer and Griscom (2013) pointed
out the presence of individual differences in the personal preference for harmony—in their work
on aesthetic taste. Though the general preference for harmonious stimuli emerged as an
important factor underlying their participants’ aesthetic responses, the authors were also able to
observe that this general preference systematically declined as a function of professional training
or experience in the relevant aesthetic domain (such as musical training).
However, we think that such observations may also reveal the possibility that increased,
repeated, or rather mindful exposure to aesthetic stimuli—or accumulated experience in the
certain aesthetic domain—enables the increased and flexible ability to perceive, prefer, savor, or
appreciate the extremely nuanced, or the subtlest cues of balance and harmony in more irregular,
novel, radical, and unconventional aesthetic stimuli, patterns, or pieces of art (rather than simply
reflecting the dislike of balance and harmony; Keltner & Haidt, 2003; Fayn et al., 2015; Karinen
et al., 2024; Papenmeier et al., 2024; Sio & Lortie-Forgues, 2024; Stamkou et al., 2024;
Warburton, 2003; Zhang et al., 2024).
Correlates and (Potential) Consequences of the Experience of Beauty: Themes and Novel
Avenues
While a great amount of prior research on beauty have focused on what makes something
beautiful (the preceding conditions of eliciting beauty), the consequences (such as cognitive,
emotional, or behavioral) of beauty remain to be uncovered and understood—except for the case
of human physical attractiveness and its effects (Dion & Dion, 1987; He et al., 2024; Olson &
Marshuetz, 2005; Palmer et al., 2013; Thömmes & Hübner, 2020).
Throughout the following, main sections of the current piece, theme by theme, we try to
provide an overview of direct or indirect empirical evidence related to the potential
consequences (or at least, correlates) of the experience of beauty, at times expanding upon them
to feature novel possibilities of future inquiries and verifications.
Risk
In their analyses of post-earthquake mobile app usage data, Jia et al. (2017) found that
using hedonic apps (such as music streaming apps) not only served as a coping strategy after the
stressful disaster, but also reduced the perceived risk. In fact, in their data, the authors observed
that only increases in the usage of hedonic apps (and not communication apps or functional apps,
somewhat counterintuitively) reduced the perceived risk. Citing prior studies on the association
between suppression in the dopamine circuit and psychiatric disorders, the authors explained that
pleasure seeking might function as an adaptive response in the face of threatening, negative life
incidents or environments (Cho, 2024; Hikosaka, 2010; Li et al., 2011).
Then, we reason that such findings and thoughts might imply an important function of
aesthetic pleasure: reducing the perceived risk or threat, eventually mitigating the related anxiety,
fear, or stress. Prior studies on the different, distinct effects of anger and fear—both of negative
valence—on risk perception leave room for the possibility that the experience of beauty, yet not
all positive emotions or positive affective experiences, can have quite distinct and unique effects
on (or routes to) the perception of risk and threat.
This possibility, importantly, can distinguish beauty from the related emotion, awe—
which undoubtedly involves fear and intimidation (Bai et al., 2017; Gordon et al., 2017;
Chaudhury et al., 2021). Providing more indirect yet relevant empirical evidence, analyses of
seasonal influences on risk-related cognition and behavior also revealed that environmental
signals of resource abundance—a factor essentially tied to the evolutionary accounts of beautiful
nature—reduced both the perceived risk and actual risky behavior (Gazzaniga, 2008; ten Brinke
& Keltner, 2024; Ulrich, 1983).
Stress
In their neuroimaging examinations, Tsukiura and Cabeza (2011) found that activations
in the insular cortex decreased as functions of both facial and moral beauty, each. Importantly,
preceding studies had associated insular activations with a wide range of negative social
situations and information—for example, social exclusion, unfairness, socially negative signals
from human faces, and unreciprocated cooperation (Eisenberger et al., 2003; Phillips et al., 1997;
Rilling et al., 2008; Sanfey et al., 2003; Winston et al., 2002). Then, put together, the
aforementioned findings might suggest that (the experience of) beauty can mitigate (the effects
of) social stress.
Surely this thought automatically invites the critique that such effects may simply be due
to an overall valence effect—of positive affect—than beauty per se. Yet we think that the
specific mechanism through which beauty can mitigate the impact of external stressors could be
unique—for instance, through the (intense, or mindful) concentration on one’s own senses. In a
study wherein college students were instructed to mindfully focus on trees on a college campus
during a short walk, it was found that the more beautiful the students appraised the trees at post-
test, the greater their stress reduction (Diessner, 2021).
Aesthetic pleasure often allows a state of deep absorption, detaching the individual from
the surroundings (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). And also quite often, aesthetic pleasure can be
understood as a state of meta-emotion—wherein the presentation of emotion within the aesthetic
stimuli (e.g., painting, play, music, literature, or dance) can elicit an emotional state that is
parallel to the emotion being portrayed (Pelowski et al., 2023; Pizzolante et al., 2024; Shweder &
Haidt, 2000). Hence, under such conditions, the observer or perceiver can savor an emotional
experience similar to the loss of self, which takes them away from their everyday life and the
related concerns (Morgan & Cotten, 2003; Bai et al., 2021). Murdoch (1970) referred to such
processes as beauty’s ability to cause unselfing.
Indeed, studies of art therapy continue to document the effectiveness of such
interventions as meaningful support for children going through painful life experiences, or for
children being challenged by autism (Epp, 2008; Favara-Scacco et al., 2001). And somewhat
ironically, beautiful stimuli are often perceived as even more beautiful when preceded by
negative stimuli or events (including hurtful or stressful life incidents or environments), due to
contrast effects—processes which, along with the aforementioned observations, imply the
potential power and soothing effect of beauty (Diamond & Lanskey, 2024; Kenrick et al., 1980;
Muth & Carbon, 2024; Sherif et al., 1958).
Well-Being
Beyond the reduction of stress, mentioned earlier in the current piece, beauty can play a
further, major role in human flourishing and well-being. Human well-being can have many
dimensions—including factors such as how positive a person feels in general, or more reflective
features such as meaning or purpose in life, or the pursuance of self-transcendent goals (Park et
al., 2022).
Maslow (1970), late in his life, considered the fulfillment of aesthetic needs as a level of
well-being even higher than (his widely known concept of) self-actualization. Furthermore, he
thought that the gratification of aesthetic needs can set the stage to accomplish the highest level
of need fulfillment—i.e., the need for self-transcendence. Likewise, May (1985) wrote that the
quest for beauty is both the method and goal of existential flourishing and well-being.
Natural beauty and well-being. A large amount of evidence—across the disciplines of
natural sciences, social sciences, and health sciences—have demonstrated that experience in
nature can substantially enhance both emotional well-being and cognitive functioning (Bratman
et al., 2019; Howell & Passmore, 2013). And such findings may be fairly universal, across
cultural contexts (e.g., Yeung & Yu, 2022).
But then, what would be the specific, causal influences in the nature stimuli that enable
such emotional and cognitive flourishing? Beauty is a likely candidate, yet few studies have
sorted out the causal factors among the plethora of possibilities. We now know that the nature
effects are not caused by simply being outside, nor is it only the effect of walking, since multiple
studies have shown that walking in a green space enhances well-being significantly better than
walking in an urban space (Berman et al., 2008; Ji et al., 2012; Twohig-Bennett & Jones, 2018).
The beautiful sounds or the quietude of nature may have an influence—as urban walking in the
quiet of night does increase well-being almost as walking in a green space (Li et al., 2020).
An important behavioral sign of self-transcendence—a major aspect of well-being—is
the unselfing found through helping others (Park et al., 2022). In a rare, laboratory experiment
study demonstrating that engagement with natural beauty can promote helping behavior, the
experimental group was exposed to beautiful plants and the control group to less beautiful plants
(Zhang et al., 2014; the researchers had conducted a pilot study to empirically determine the
more and less beautiful plants). The dependent variable was the amount of paper cranes their
participants made to send to victims of an earthquake in Japan, and the random subgroup of
participants (experimental group) who had the more (vs. less) beautiful plants in the room made
more cranes.
Though correlational, in earlier work directly examining the relationship between
engagement with natural beauty and well-being, engagement with natural beauty was positively
associated with life satisfaction, gratitude, and spiritual transcendence, while being inversely
associated with materialism (Diessner et al., 2008). In a similar vein, connectedness with nature
was associated with increased life satisfaction and self-esteem only when such individuals were
emotionally attuned to the beauty of nature (Zhang et al., 2014). Also in a three-nation study
(i.e., Canada, Japan, and Russia), trait levels of engagement with natural beauty with positively
correlated with measures of psychological well-being, emotional well-being, social well-being,
and meaning in life (Capaldi et al., 2017). After analyzing their cross-cultural data, the authors
claimed that—slightly unlike the previously mentioned reasoning of Zhang et al. (2014)—
engagement with natural beauty promoted a stronger connection with nature, which in turn lead
to greater well-being and meaning in life.
And also in a study of the U.K. campaign, 30 Days Wild (which aimed to get people
more involved with nature), the researchers also documented that it was the increases in
engagement with natural beauty which accounted for the observed link between connectedness
with nature and happiness (Richardson & McEwan, 2018).
Artistic beauty and well-being. Engaging with the arts has well-documented
relationships with health and well-being—promoting emotional well-being and physical health,
while preventing mental or physical illness (Koefler et al., 2024). Viewing art in museums,
listening to music or attending concerts, going to theatre or dance performances are all associated
with improvements in mood and well-being (Fancourt & Finn, 2019; Rodriguez et al., 2024;
Thorp, 2024). Mastrandrea et al. (2019), after reviewing the influence of the arts on well-being
(across a wide range of contexts including education, healthcare setting, and museums),
concluded, based on advances in neuro-aesthetics, that art increases positive mood—which then
leads to better psychological and physical health.
Then, we question: how much of the well-being caused by art is caused by experiencing
the beauty which emanates from various art forms? This in an under-studied yet important
question. Even listening to sad music, when one is sad, increases well-being—perhaps through
the restoration of homeostatic equilibrium (Muth & Carbon, 2024; Sachs et al., 2015; the
researchers emphasized that the sad listener must focus on the beauty of the music for that re-
equilibration to take place).
Visiting art museums often causes increases in well-being (Chatterjee & Noble, 2017;
Lee et al., 2024). But even viewing one piece of painting online for less than two minutes (e.g.,
a Monet Water Lily) can improve well-being—as measured in lower levels of negative mood and
higher levels of positive mood, which were associated with the level of beauty that the
participants found in the painting (Trupp et al., 2022).
We spend so much of our lives inside—for example, Americans spend 90% of their time
inside buildings. Then, it is important for us to know that not only architects and interior
designers but also lay people find curved lines as more beautiful than angular structures (Hübner
& Ufken, 2022; Vartanian et al., 2013). Empirical studies documented that, across cultures and
also across the various kinds of human-made objects and space, people tend to prefer curvature
than sharp lines (Gómez-Puerto et al., 2018; Hübner & Ufken, 2022; Vartanian et al., 2013). In
fact, across cultures and also across the various kinds of human-made objective, curves are
generally more preferred than sharp lines (Gómez-Puerto et al., 2018). Furthermore, when given
the choice to enter a rectilinear or curvilinear space, more people chose the room with curves
(Vartanian et al., 2019). Curvilinear interior design can contribute to well-being—since people
tend to perceive curvilinear (vs. angular) interiors as more beautiful, more restful, and less
stressful (Tawil et al., 2022).
Our open-minded search for truth, about ourselves, about others around us, and about the
world enables eudaimonic well-being. In studies of personality and art, one of the most
consistent findings is the high correlation between the five factor personality trait, openness to
experience and the appreciation of art. In a large non-college sample, Diessner and colleagues
(Diessner, 2019; Diessner et al., 2008) found that, among the five factor personality traits,
openness had the highest correlation with their measure of engagement with artistic beauty.
Such observations are not so surprising in that openness itself involves a facet subscale of
aesthetics—i.e., open-minded people tend to enjoy art more than others, and those who enjoy art
tend to be more open-minded (Brisson & Bianchi, 2024).
Character strengths that account for human goodness, including the appreciation of
beauty, also lead to flourishing and well-being—in some studies, accounting for the variance in
well-being over and above the five factor personality traits (McGrath et al., 2020; Peterson &
Seligman, 2004). And there is also some evidence that the appreciation of beauty can protect the
elders from dementia. In research analyzing a community sample of seniors, the researchers
found that scoring low on the aesthetic facet of openness predicted cognitive decline, even after
controlling for age, education, and also the other four (five factor personality) traits (Williams et
al., 2013).
In summary, while there are several studies explicitly indicating that it is artistic beauty
that increases well-being, the vast majority of studies on the positive effects of art on human
well-being have yet not examined the specific role of beauty per se. For example, the World
Health Organization commissioned a report that is 146 pages long, and the abstract stated that it
“synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with
a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a
major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and
treatment of illness across the lifespan” (Fancourt & Finn, 2019, p. ii). However, in the entire
146 pages of the report, beauty was mentioned only once.
Hence, clearly, there is need for further research on the influence of artistic beauty on
well-being—i.e., systematically tearing apart how much of the variance it accounts for in the
artistic experiences which enhance emotional and physical health. And another major lacunae in
research about artistic beauty is the influence that beautiful buildings have on human beings.
Across the world, governments and religions (which are sometimes the same thing) have erected
palaces and temples that are amazingly beautiful. Then, why is beauty so important in their
construction?
Think of Mayan, Aztec, and Inca structures. Think of Buddhist and Hindu temples;
Christian churches and Muslim mosques; Persepolis and the Parthenon. What is the purpose of
the beauty in these structures, and what effect does the beauty have on the community that visits
such valuable, architectural sites? One possible hypothesis is based on a (nuanced) way of
approaching or defining beauty—i.e., unity in diversity (Diessner 2019; Diessner et al., 2018;
Gál, 2011; Ince, 2020). Does the beauty of these structures help create unity in the community
(be it religious, local, national, or international) that then leads to collective well-being (Joye &
Verpooten, 2013)? Though the theoretical answer would be “yes,” we do need empirical studies
to determine this, and there appears to be (close to) none in the published literature, as of now.
Moral beauty, well-being, and self-transcendent emotions. Beauty has a special
relationship with self-transcendent emotions. In a sense, beauty could be considered as a mother
of the self-transcendent emotions—she births them. Not only moral beauty but also natural
beauty, and at times artistic beauty can be the eliciting stimuli of most (or all?) self-transcendent
emotions.
As will be described below, it seems likely that observing acts of moral beauty can cause
awe, compassion, humility, gratitude, and elevation. Natural beauty can likewise cause these
five prototypical self-transcendent emotions, and artistic beauty can as well—through the various
forms of art, from architecture to music, theatre, film, and so on. And though most of the
research on the appreciation of beauty has focused on art, and to some degree on nature, there
has been a substantial increase of research on moral beauty in the last two decades (Haidt &
Keltner, 2004; Pohling & Diessner, 2016).
To many readers or scholars, moral beauty can seem quite different from natural beauty
or artistic beauty. However, they share a large overlap in where and how they are processed in
the human brain—for example, judgments of the aesthetic beauty of paintings and moral
judgments concerning the actions in the same paintings had common activations in the medial
prefrontal cortex (Heinzelmann et al., 2020).
If well-being can also come from unselfing, then the experience of self-transcendent
emotions—such as elevation, awe, compassion, gratitude, or humility—would be very important
for human flourishing (Haidt & Keltner, 2004; Keltner & Haidt, 2003; Murdoch, 1970; Zhang et
al., 2014). If we take a broader view of well-being, and think of it in more collective terms, and
not just something for the self, then the self-transcendent emotions can bring well-being to others
and the broader community or society through the action tendencies toward the prosociality and
altruism that self-transcendent emotions can create (Diamond & Lanskey, 2024; Forgeard, 2024;
Koefler et al., 2024; Pizarro et al., 2021; Stellar et al., 2017; Wilkinson et al., 2021; Young &
Goldstein, 2024).
Love and compassion. The love toward humanity also has large correlations with both
moral and natural beauty, each (and an almost large correlation with artistic beauty), and
compassion is more strongly correlated with the character strength, appreciation of beauty than it
is with the 23 other character strengths (Campos et al., 2002; Diessner, et al., 2013; Lumber et
al., 2017, 2023). Observing a moral exemplar showing the self-transcendent emotion of
compassion can lead to increased enacted compassion by the observer—resulting in greater well-
being for the broader community, especially for the members that are weaker or suffering (Goetz
et al., 2010; Stellar et al., 2017). In prior research on meaningful entertainment, participants
viewed films of characters displaying moral beauty, and it was moral beauty which accounted for
the arousal of compassion after watching such films—i.e., compassion for both close others and
also for all humanity (Janicke & Oliver, 2017).
Gratitude. Observing actions of moral beauty being directed at the self—or perhaps
directed at a community which one cares for or identified with—elicits gratitude, and gratitude is
quite well known to cause happiness and subjective well-being (McCullough et al., 2001;
Watkins et al., 2003; Watkins & Scheibe, 2018). Several studies have documented a moderate to
large correlation between trait gratitude and trait engagement with moral beauty (Diessner et al.,
2008, 2013; Pohling et al., 2018). And though none of the published studies that we are aware of
have directly mentioned moral beauty per se as the cause of gratitude, there are many studies that
describe the moral actions (which represent moral beauty) as inducing gratitude in the
beneficiary of the moral or virtuous actions of others.
Humility. Humility is also an important, prosocial self-transcendent emotion. And like
most self-transcendent emotions, it can also be framed as a trait, a character strength, or a virtue.
Humility is crucial for the well-being of our communities, as it lessens narcissism, entitlement,
and arrogance (Bai et al., 2017; Tangney, 2000). Instead, it allows us to recognize the value of
others’ actions and worth, it increases empathy and the willingness to sacrifice for others, along
with the forgiveness of others (Li et al., 2024; Stellar et al., 2018). There are prior studies on
awe inducing humility, via the diminished self (Bai et al., 2017; Piff et al., 2015). And while we
do not know of extant studies on beauty and humility (which calls for future examinations), it
does seem very likely that humility can be increased by exposure to moral beauty—as observing
moral exemplar in action could cause individuals to feel quite humble.
Curiosity. Epistemic self-transcendent emotions, such as curiosity, are also elicited by
beautiful stimuli (Abatista & Cova, 2023). Beauty has an intimate relationship with curiosity—
i.e., a factor analysis of the VIA test of character strengths demonstrated that, although beauty
had a strong loading on the Caring factor (.47), it had an even stronger loading on the
Inquisitiveness factor (.49; McGrath et al., 2018). Also in other, recent analyses, the character
strengths of curiosity and appreciation of beauty correlated .47 (N = 14,648; Diessner et al.,
2024). Plato/Socrates (1989) had once declared, what we find beautiful we love, and what we
love we find beautiful; and what we care about, we are curious about. Furthermore, recent
studies have also documented that beautiful stimuli can reduce anxiety by increasing curiosity,
implying the consequences in well-being (Barbieri et al., 2023).
Elevation, awe, and spirituality. Elevation can be elicited by engagement with moral
beauty (Haidt, 2003; Klebl et al., 2020; Pohling & Diessner et al., 2016). And it creates the
desire to become a “better” person, leading to action tendencies which serve the benefit or well-
being of others—signs of eudaimonic well-being. Awe can also be elicited by observing acts of
moral beauty, as the various flavors of awe do include an aesthetic beauty flavor and also a moral
beauty flavor (Keltner & Haidt, 2003; Piff et al., 2015; Pohling et al., 2016). Such experiences
of awe can then lead to greater well-being, not only for the person experiencing awe but also for
the greater community surrounding the person—via the prosocial tendencies and behaviors
elicited by awe (Bai et al., 2017; Piff et al., 2015; Pizarro et al., 2021; Stellar et al., 2017).
And as implied from the label and its effects, spirituality can also be quite versatile and
multifaceted—it could be an emotion, a state, a trait, a character strength, a value, a principle, or
a virtue. If spirituality is to be defined as the experience of transcending the material world, then
perhaps it could be framed much like one of the self-transcendent emotions listed above, or in
fact like a prototypical self-transcendent emotion (Keltner & Stamkou, 2024). For sure, there is
much left to be clearly and empirically documented about this topic or phenomenon.
The appreciation of beauty can be quite strongly associated with spiritual transcendence
(Cloninger et al., 1994; Martínez-Martí et al., 2016), and engagement with the different kinds of
beauty (natural, artistic, and moral) also share small to strong relationships with spiritual
transcendence (Diessner et al., 2008; Piedmont, 1991). Spirituality as a human value also shows
similar patterns with natural, artistic, and moral beauty traits (Diessner et al., 2013; Schwartz,
1992).
Research by Cohen et al. (2010) documented that experiences of profound beauty were
nearly always perceived as positive yet relatively short-lasting, whereas experiences of spiritual
transformation could be felt as either positive or negative and tended to be long-lasting. Then it
could be wise for us to seek spiritually transformative experiences in the context of profound
beauty, thus savoring a long-lasting positive experience. Yet is it possible to design an empirical
study regarding the impact of profoundly beautiful and spiritually transformative experiences?
We do hope so.
Studies continue to provide evidence related to the connection between trait awe, beauty,
and spiritual transcendence, from different parts of the world (Lin et al., 2020). In a similar vein,
another recent study demonstrated that the self-perception of one’s own virtue or moral beauty
distinctly predicted spirituality, prosocial tendencies and well-being over and beyond differences
in agency and communion (Erickson et al., 2024). Yet the influence of moral beauty itself, via
observing spiritual exemplars, does not seem to have been documented in empirical psychology.
That is, how much of the spiritually transformative influence of Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Christ,
and Muhammad is due to their moral beauty qua beauty? It remains as an open question for
future inquiries.
And, returning to the question raised in our section on artistic beauty and well-being,
what is the influence of the “beauty” of the spiritually oriented buildings on human flourishing?
For example, the Hindu Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundaraswarar Temple in India, Bahá’í Lotus
Temple in India, Buddhist White Stupa Temple in Beijing, Tempio Maggiore Synagogue in
Florence, Hwagyesa temple in Korea, Cathedral and Mosque Hagia Sophia in Turkey. All are
breath-taking. Does the beauty of such buildings inspire people to higher levels of spirituality?
To higher levels of prosociality? To higher levels of emotional well-being?
While these questions leave room for creative, future investigations, we do think that the
strands of prior research, some theoretical and some empirical, point towards the answer, “yes”
to these questions. To unfold and describe an example of such sequences, one study has shown
that monumental architecture (with physical vastness) can cause awe, and another small
empirical study regarding the interior of buildings determined three stimuli (or factors) that
predicted feelings of awe—i.e., skillful adornment, immensity, and sanctity (Joye & Verpooten,
2013; Joye & Dewitte, 2016; Negami & Ellard, 2021). In these observations, awe was
influenced by the height of either the exterior or interior (ceiling) of the buildings, and ceiling
height does lead to judgments of beauty (Vartanian et al., 2015).
Values
Grabenhorst and Rolls (2008) observed that the human brain responds differently to the
same gustatory stimuli (i.e., taste) depending on whether the participant was instructed to pay
selective attention to the affective value of the taste or the intensity of the taste. When instructed
to remember and rate the pleasantness of the taste, activations increased in the medial
orbitofrontal cortex and pregenual cingulate cortex. Instead, when instructed to remember and
rate the intensity of the taste, activations increased in the insular taste cortex.
Then, given the link between activations in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the
processing of beautiful stimuli (mentioned before in the current article), one might wonder and
hypothesize if the experience of beauty stimulates the human brain to be more attuned to positive
rewards—especially in terms of pleasure, or, put differently the hedonic or affective value
(Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011).
Through empirical studies on money and beauty, DeVoe and House (2012) documented
the inverse relationship between aesthetic pleasure and the focus on monetary values. More
specifically, they explained that money mindsets undermined their participants’ abilities to savor
and enjoy the experience of listening to pleasant music.
Then, put together with the aforementioned strands of evidence that are extant as of now,
it may be possible that the experience of (or exposure to) beauty leads an individual to place
more emphasis on (or at least, momentarily focus more on) the affective value than monetary or
utilitarian value in making one’s own choices, decisions, and judgments. These propositions
would await future empirical testing.
Justice
In their rare, empirical study on the behavioral consequences of experiencing beauty,
Zhang and colleagues (Zhang et al., 2014) observed that exposure to beautiful (vs. less beautiful)
nature increased prosocial tendencies—as measured in self-reports of agreeableness, perspective
taking, and empathy, and also actual helping behavior in the laboratory (Wilkinson et al., 2024).
And we wonder if additional evidence from functional neuroimaging studies, when put together
with such findings, might suggest a not so obvious link between beauty and justice (Scarry,
1999; Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011; Pohling & Diessner, 2016).
In their examinations of the neural mechanisms underlying the beauty is good (the lay
assumption that people who are physically or visually attractive are also morally or socially
desirable or attractive; similar to the well-known halo effect), Tsukiura and Cabeza (2011) found
an overlap between the neural mechanisms related to judgments of facial attractiveness and
judgments of moral goodness (Dion et al., 1972; Han et al., 2018; He et al., 2024; Lucker et al.,
1981; Talamas et al., 2016; vanDellen et al., 2024).
Indeed, it can be injustice itself to judge the moral value or moral standing of other
individuals (or animals) based on their explicit beauty or ugliness. Still, several recent studies
reveal that beautiful humans and animals tend to be grated higher moral standing (than less
beautiful humans or animals; Klebl et al. 2021, 2022; Schreiber et al., 2024; Stein et al., 2024).
In their observations, specifically, activations in the medial orbitofrontal cortex increased
as functions of facial attractiveness ratings and moral goodness ratings, both. And by contrast,
activations in the insular cortex decreased as functions of these ratings, again both. As
mentioned before in the current article, the medial orbitofrontal cortex has been associated with
the processing of positive stimuli, including attractive faces, beautiful pictures, and morally
desirable stimuli (moral beauty); and on the other hand, the insular cortex has been associated
with the processing of negative stimuli, such as less attractive faces and morally problematic
stimuli (Bray & O’Doherty, 2007; Kawabata & Zeki, 2004; Kranz & Ishai, 2006; Ishai, 2007;
Moll et al., 2006; O’Doherty et al., 2003).
Perhaps the most rigorously designed study on this topic, in particular, found domain
generality for aesthetic judgments of beauty and moral judgments—using the same set of
paintings (Heinzelmann et al., 2020). The participants judged the aesthetic beauty vs. ugliness
and the moral goodness vs. badness within the same paintings, which controls for many variables
the prior studies had not controlled for. The researchers observed common activations in the
medial prefrontal area—while the domain specific sites were the temporalparietal cortex for the
moral judgments, and the occipital cortex for the aesthetic judgments.
In a related vein, Diessner and colleagues (Diessner et al., 2008, 2009) examined how the
engagement with beauty might be related to justice reasoning or trait fairness, controlling for
individual differences in trait openness to experience (the personality trait and strong predictor of
aesthetic engagement). Though the link between engagement with beauty and justice reasoning
fell short of statistical significance after accounting for openness, the link between engagement
with beauty and trait fairness remained significant after accounting for such individual
differences (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Tracing back to much earlier work, Dion and Dion (1987) had examined the interplay
between beauty and just world beliefs—the belief that the world is a quite fair place wherein
people get what they deserve and deserve what they get)—as a potential explanation for the
previously mentioned, beauty is good stereotype (Dion et al., 1972; Han et al., 2018; Lucker et
al., 1981; Talamas et al., 2016; Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011; vanDellen et al., 2024). In their
studies, participants who strongly believed in a just world were more likely to associate physical
attractiveness with socially desirable traits—being more likely to possess or exhibit the beauty is
good stereotype.
We note that these strands of prior, empirical results seem to converge at the intersection
of beauty and moral goodness, justness, justice, or fairness. And moving beyond the observation
that the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of beauty and justice are overlappingly
associated with the processing of simply positive stimuli, we further reason that these findings
may be related to a central, core, or salient appraisal of beauty that was documented above in the
current article—i.e., (the sense of) balance and harmony.
Balance and harmony are not only visual features that please the human eyes at the
surface levels, but also conceptual and cognitive features that are, fundamentally, related to the
sense of equity or fairness. And, perhaps somewhat ironically, we consider the possibility that
this fundamental, human motive or desire for balance and harmony might be related to the
ambivalent, lay attitude toward beauty—i.e., the quite judgmental attitudes often reflected in the
disgust, at extreme circumstances, expressed toward “surface level beauty” when it does not
seem to coherently match with inner beauty or justice.
The aforementioned research on balance and harmony overlapped in that they
operationalized a common description of beauty—i.e., unity in diversity (Palmer & Griscom,
2013; Palmer et al., 2013; Thömmes & Hübner, 2020). Balance and harmony are both classic
examples of unity in diversity, wherein two or more elements/components are organized into a
pleasing whole. Philosophers as disparate as Plato, Augustine, Plotinus, Hutcheson, Ficino,
Santayana, Croce, Murdoch, and Langer have framed beauty as unity in diversity (for reviews,
see Diessner, 2019; Diessner et al., 2018). John Dewey noted, “There is an old formula for
beauty in nature and art: Unity in variety (1958, p. 161).” The concept (unity in diversity) is also
a common, cross-cultural frame for beauty among non-philosophers and psychologists
(Brielmann et al., 2021; Eysenck, 1957).
Environmental justice. Finally, a critical and time-pressing form of current (and
ongoing) injustice is environmental injustice. Humans have been polluting and exploiting the
planet—causing climate change, and hence the weather disasters and sea level rise which,
indeed, disproportionately hurt the weak, the poor, the disenfranchised, and countries and
animals that did little to cause such injustice and environmental problems (Scott et al., 2021).
Then, enter beauty.
In a recent study involving more than 14,000 participants across the globe, it was
observed that the trait appreciation of beauty was the strongest predictor of proenvironmental
behavior, when compared to the 23 other virtues and character strengths (Diessner & Niemiec,
2023; Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Specifically, appreciation of beauty was more predictive of
proenvironmental behavior than the major character strengths including love, hope, fairness,
open-minded judgment, courage, and perseverance.
The experience of beauty can increase both our intention to perform proenvironmental
behavior, and our actual, supportive behavior (donations to the Nature Conservancy, for
example). In an experiment, simply viewing an online video portraying beautiful nature led to
increases in both the intention to perform proenvironmental behavior and actual donations—by
arousing elevation, the self-transcendent emotion (Diessner et al., 2022). Another video,
portraying moral beauty, also had similar outcomes—through the combined arousal of elevation
and awe, another self-transcendent emotion. The more the participants considered the content of
the video (whichever kind of beauty, be it natural or moral) as beautiful, the stronger their
intentions to perform proenvironmental behavior, and the higher their actual donation behavior.
Beyond the virtues and character strengths mentioned above, perhaps, on top of
everything, having an identity connected to nature—i.e., nature connectedness—is the strongest
predictor of proenvironmental behavior (Sheffield et al., 2022; Whitburn et al., 2020). Not so
surprisingly, appreciating the beauty of nature has a large correlation with nature connectedness
(Diessner et al., 2013). It seems quite obvious that, if a person loves the beauty of nature, they
would be motivated toward more proenvironmental behavior. This is empirically true, as of
now, and further analyses have documented that such effects can be explained (to some degree)
by nature connectedness (Diessner et al., 2018; Barrows et al., 2022).
Speaking of nature connectedness, there can always be a variety of pathways to nature
connectedness. Yet the beauty pathway tends to emerge as a quite prominent one, while other
examined pathways included sensory contact, emotion, knowledge, meaning, compassion, and
compassion (Lumber et al., 2017; Richardson et al., 2020). Another recent study involving more
than 10,000 participants across the world revealed that the appreciation of beauty predicted all
six pathways to nature connectedness better than the 23 other character strengths (Lumber et al.,
2023; Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Regardless of which pathway (to nature connectedness) the participants each endorsed
the most, the degree of their appreciation of beauty correlated higher with that certain pathway
than did any of the other character strengths measured and analyzed. To summarize the
observations presented in the current section, empirical studies of beauty (on both the trait-level
appreciation of beauty and the experience of beauty), altogether, as of now, seem to show that
beauty can motivate the promotion of environmental justice—by increasing both the intention to
engage in proenvironmental behavior and actual proenvironmental behavior.
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