Experiencing Beauty in Everyday Life

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/pf7vw
• Publication Date: 2023-12-07T05:01:58Z
• Authors: Anna Lena Knoll; Tristan Barriere; Rosalie Weigand; Thomas Jacobsen; Helmut Leder; Eva Specker
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Adolescent; Science; Cultural evolution; Article; Beauty; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Human behaviour; Humans; Psychology and behaviour; 501001 General psychology; Q; R; 501001 Allgemeine Psychologie; AROUSAL; Middle Aged; Affect; Medicine; Female; Arousal; Coevolution

Beauty surrounds us in many ways every day. In 3 experience sampling (ESM) studies we investigated frequency, category of eliciting stimuli (natural vs human-made) and, the potential moderating role of several individual difference measures of such everyday experiences of beauty in an ecologically valid manner. Further, we explored the impact of such experienceson valence & arousal. Study 1 re-analysed data from a previous study, in line with the current aims. In Studies 2 and 3, we asked participants to report daily experiences of beauty using a mixed random and event-contingent sampling schedule. Mobile notifications (random sampling) prompted participants to take a photo and rate the beauty of their surroundings. Further, currentvalence and arousal were assessed. Notification frequency and total days of participation differed between these two studies. Participants were able to report additional experiences outside of the notification windows (event-contingent sampling). Our results indicate that we frequently encounter beauty in everyday life and that we find it in nature, in particular. Our resultsfurther suggest a mood-boosting effect of encounters with beauty. Lastly, our results indicate influences of individual differences however, these were inconclusive and require further attention.