Die Funktion der Ästhetik in unserem Leben

o Wider research context/theoretical framework Research has shown varies effects of beauty, e.g. beautiful objects attract and bind attention (Goller et al., 2019) as well as elicit positive emotions (Gerger et al., 2011). This ability to see beauty in the world and to experience aesthetic episodes—our aesthetic sense—has been linked to adaptive success during evolution (Rosenthal, 2018). What is missing in current research is a connection to daily life with most studies conducted exclusively in the lab. From an evolutionary perspective, an aesthetic sense can only be adaptive if it is relevant to our everyday lives. In addition, there is a need to consider individual variation as well as object variation, since most empirical studies focus on specific object categories (mainly art) or artificial stimuli (random patterns) without comparison to naturalistic stimuli. o Hypotheses/research questions/objectives As such, we focus on four general hypotheses throughout all aspects of the project: 1) aesthetic episodes are common and frequent in everyday life, 2) aesthetic objects attract visual attention, 3) aesthetic episodes entail positive emotions, and 4) evaluations of beauty have different effects on exploration and valuation with persons, objects, and environments. At the base of 1) and 2) is a general evolutionary idea that our aesthetic sense is adaptive and shapes everyday experience, 3) proposes a potential evolutionary function for the aesthetic sense: eliciting positive emotions, and 4) considers individual variation as well as variation due to external factors. o Approach/methods In an innovative approach we identify, quantify, and measure the quality of aesthetic episodes in everyday life settings. We employ a carefully designed multi-method approach, using experience sampling in WP1 and combining field sessions with individually tailored laboratory sessions in WP2 and 3. o Level of originality/innovation Our aesthetic sense has been proposed as a specific feature of human nature (Davies, 2012). We propose studies that for the first time systematically capture the effects of aesthetic episodes in real life sequences of events, plus individually matched experiments. No previous project has been concerned with such an embeddedness of aesthetic episodes in daily life. The studies combine technologically new standards of producing individually tailored sets of stimuli, employing state-of-the-art technologies with state-of-the-art, well-approved experiments, behaviorally and physiologically. In addition to this technological innovation, the present project opens a new perspective on aesthetics that bridges the sciences and humanities, and regards aesthetic episodes as crucial events in our everyday lives. Our project will provide a new perspective on the role of aesthetics in human life. o Primary researchers involved The project will be led by Dr. Eva Specker with help of co-PI Dr. Helmut Leder assisted by two PhD students (NN).