SEX DIFFERENCES IN AESTHETIC PREFERENCES.

Impelled by the slight amount of consideration that has been given to the problem of sex differences in aesthetic preferences, this paper has surveyed data on this subject provided by research projects conducted by the authors, These data consist of systematic comparisons of the preferences of groups of men and women of similar backgrounds for a range of art objects within an art field, as well as the art styles revealed within a medium by statistical analysis. By a further comparison of the preferences of two sets of groups of men and women, the size of differences in preferences by sex has been compared directly to the amount of difference due to other variables such as age, social class, special art training and vocation. These results, though obtained from groups necessarily limited in size and range, combine with the evidence from other studies to permit these conclusions: 1. Men and women do differ significantly in their preferences for art of all types. 2. These differences in preference tend to be small in absolute terms when the total range of an art field is considered, but sex differences are greater in terms of specific styles within a medium of art. 3. These sex differences are generally considerably less than the differences in preference caused by such variation among groups as age, social class, special training and vocation. 4. Even the differences in pfeference due to the latter variables, with the possible exception of special training, are not of as great magnitude as is found in a comparison of the interests and attitudes of similar groups. 5. A study of the specific art objects within art fields which are differentially preferred by men and women supplements our knowledge of the differences between men and women in their individual and social roles and provides the basis for a special approach to the psychology of the aesthetic response. This last conclusion (#5 above) may be expanded into a few generalizations based on the art objects and styles specifically mentioned in this study. The following three examples may be kept in mind as illustrative of the generalizations. From "verbal imagery," men see themselves as an "electric generator," women as "a humming teakettle"; from abstract art, men prefer Leger's Composition, 1919, glorifying the machine in bright color, and women prefer Morris' Mon tank, subdued in tone and possessing an unobstrusive structure; in music men prefer the solemn and resounding Sunken Cathedral and women prefer the rapid and troubled Collines of Anacapri. It may be suggested that in terms of content women tend to prefer the personal rather than the impersonal, the intimate rather than the grand, the sensuous rather than the abstract. Within the area of form in terms of dynamics, women prefer the less powerful, the bounded, and the controlled in the phases of intensity and contrast. In tone and color women tend to prefer the softer, the more modulated, the controlled, rather than the expressive. In degree of tension (variation from the norms of form as in dissonance, deviancy in color harmony, innovation in language style) women prefer the more conventional canons of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]