beauty changes everything
People prefer what is familiar to them. Scholars call this the "mere exposure effect." Philosopher Bence Nanay explains: "The more you are exposed to something, the more you tend to like it. Just the mere exposure to something changes your preferences. And this happens even if you are not aware of what you are exposed … Continue reading Seeking the Familiar with a Twist
Quality can be an ambiguous word when people approach from different perspectives. What makes a quality car? It could be how long it will last; how fast it will go; how much it can haul. What makes a quality movie? Answering this question might require us to differentiate between genres, such as horror, comedy, action, … Continue reading Quality Improvement for Healthcare
An aesthetic impact is powerful. From advertising influencing our decisions to political leaders instigating action, aesthetic motivations form a core compulsion of our lives, including for ethical or global issues. People often want to believe that they act only with good reason, since our emotions are frivolous. In "Taste, Foodways, and Everyday Life," Tim Waterman … Continue reading Positive and Negative Aesthetics
Our personal taste—for example in art, fashion, or music—does not develop by accident; it is not passive. People choose what they view, wear, and follow. But companies and organizations know how to exploit our natural desires for beauty and aesthetics. Before the Internet became a household necessity, people often trusted a friend or family member … Continue reading TikTok Aesthetics
The relation between morality and beauty continues to capture attention. Philosophers, especially moralists like Anthony Cooper (aka Shaftesbury), connected the ability to comprehend beauty to a person's virtue. Making this explicit, Shaftesbury referred to this innate ability to understand beauty as the moral sense. Part of the basis for this belief was the idea that … Continue reading Virtue and the Beautiful
Described by many as larger than life, Lance Hosey pushed for higher levels of excellence and beauty by architects and designers. He passed away in 2021, but he left a legacy of advocating for the use of aesthetics in green (or sustainable) design. Within his context of design, he held to a core idea that … Continue reading The Beauty of Green Design
Guest post by P. Winston Fettner Cuteness, it seems, is more important than it's been given credit for. It's place in evolutionary aesthetics is essential, not only for its role in developing Darwinian and empirical approaches to aesthetics, but also in the application of evolutionary aesthetics to ethics, even suggesting a contribution to the ethics … Continue reading On Cuteness
Disgust is a basic emotion that has served a useful purpose for our survival. Louise Fabiani explores this idea in her article, "Is Disgust Related to Morality?" While people have a natural caution when around too many people (physical crowds), that changes when we are connected to the crowd (psychological crowds) through religious observance or … Continue reading Disgust, Morality, and Negative Aesthetics
How aesthetics impacts our decision-making is often ignored or overlooked. Some researchers, for example, have claimed that our feelings (i.e., aesthetic responses) account for 85 percent of our decision-making for retail purchases. Another example from clothing helps to illustrate this point further. In Everyday Aesthetics, Yuriko Saito describes how natural fibers, such as wool and … Continue reading Ugliness and Climate Solutions
John Dewey wrote about the disconnect that was forged between aesthetics and everyday. He describes how artistic practices were once part of the daily life of individuals in different communities. Dewey wanted to reconnect the aesthetic to the everyday, including our jobs. It is with this framework in mind that I present some ideas from … Continue reading Concerning Organizational Aesthetics