The Kitsch Switch—or (When) Do Experts Dislike Thomas Kinkade Art? A Study of Time-Based Evaluation Changes in Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Assessment

We investigate the potential for modulations in art assessment, involving either “bottom-up” artwork-derived visual features or more overt “top-down” considerations based on personal history or taste. Such changes—whereby individuals might come to relatively increase or decrease their liking of the same works of art—have been suggested in recent art processing models and may potentially occur in addition to, or even in spite of, preframing (i.e., predictive coding) that may come before viewing experience. To assess this, we showed both novice and expert (art history graduate student) viewers abstract and representational paintings, including a specific variety (kitsch, represented by the artist Thomas Kinkade) suggested to provide a particularly salient example of divergent art, and manipulated exposure times to 100 ms, argued to afford only a bottom-up assessment of low-level visual features, 500 ms, allowing awareness of style/content without conscious reflection, and 6,000 and 12,000 ms, potentially allowing more top-down modulations. We hypothesized that by comparing groups and time durations we might identify a point of inflection—a “kitsch switch”—whereby especially the experts come to dislike the kitsch art. Viewers with relatively higher art interest did show lower liking ratings of kitsch paintings at 500 and 6,000 ms when compared to 100 ms. Those with higher interest also showed an opposite pattern of higher appraisals for abstract paintings at the same longer durations. At the same time, we also found robust evidence for a main effect on rating differences between lays and experts even at 100 ms, suggesting both a top-down and bottom-up modulation of ratings and numerous targets for future research.