A time window of 3 s in the aesthetic appreciation of poems

Chen Zhao; Dongxue Zhang; Yan Bao

doi:10.1002/pchj.194

A time window of 3 s in the aesthetic appreciation of poems

Psych J. 2018 Mar;7(1):51-52. doi: 10.1002/pchj.194. Epub 2018 Jan 3.

Authors

Chen Zhao¹, Dongxue Zhang¹, Yan Bao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
² Institute of Medical Psychology and Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.

PMID: 29297978
DOI: 10.1002/pchj.194

Abstract

We studied the effect of time windows of a few seconds on the aesthetic appreciation of poems. Both Chinese and German subjects rated traditional Chinese poetic verses more beautiful in a time window of approximately 3 s, irrespective of understanding the poetic content. This observation suggests a common temporal preference for poetry appreciation across a different language background.

Keywords: culture; emotion; poetry appreciation; time window.

MeSH terms

Asian People / psychology
Culture*
Esthetics / psychology*
Humans
Poetry as Topic*
Time Perception*
Universities
White People / psychology