How portraits turned their eyes upon us: Visual preferences and demographic change in cultural evolution
How portraits turned their eyes upon us: Visual preferences and demographic change in cultural evolution
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.01.004
复制
发表时间：
2013-05-01
影响因子：
5.1
通讯作者：
Morin, Olivier
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Morin, Olivier
人们经常认为，人类心智的先天特征可能使某些文化形式比其他文化形式更成功。本文提出了一个案例研究符合这一“认知吸引力”的假设。许多研究表明，直接的眼睛凝视会引起成年人和新生儿的注意。成年人更有吸引力。我们探讨这种认知诉求的一种可能的文化后果。在十六世纪世纪的欧洲肖像画中，直视画更有可能出现在今天的艺术书籍中。在文艺复兴时期的欧洲，凝视观者的绘画比例逐渐、强劲地增长，并在几个世纪内一直盛行。对这一转变的人口统计分析表明，这是由于新一代画家的到来。这些艺术家一开始绘画就表现出对直视肖像的偏好，这表明他们在学徒时期就掌握了这种新风格。这些画家和当代艺术评论家的偏好似乎与天生的注意力偏见一致，即偏爱直视面孔。“文艺复兴时期目光转移”的结构证明了人口转变在文化变革中的重要性。(c)2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
It has often been suggested that innate features of the human mind could make some cultural forms more successful than others. This paper presents a case study consistent with this "cognitive attraction" hypothesis. Numerous studies show that direct eye-gaze catches the attention of adults and newborns. Adults find it more attractive. We explore one possible cultural consequence of this cognitive appeal. Among XVIth century European portraits, direct-gaze paintings are more likely to be featured in today's art books. In Renaissance Europe, the proportion of paintings that stare at the viewer grows gradually, strongly, and remains prevalent for centuries. A demographic analysis of this shift shows that it was due to the arrival of new generations of painters. Those artists show a preference for direct-gaze portraits as soon as they start painting, suggesting that they acquired the new style in the years of their apprenticeship. The preferences of those painters and of contemporary art critics seem consistent with the innate attentional bias that favours direct-gaze faces. The structure of the "Renaissance gaze shift" bears evidence for the importance of demographic turn-over in cultural change. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.