The ARTistic

personality
TOMÁS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC,ADRIAN FURNHAM
and STIAN REIMERS go in search.

A
RT is part of everyday life, but its Art preferences relative straightforwardness of classifying
importance differs widely from Studies into art preferences – the extent to artistic products according to established
person to person: some can’t get which individuals like or dislike different schools. Even before personality traits were
enough of galleries, watch art programmes styles of paintings – have represented the ‘invented’ (i.e. prior to the development of
on TV, and devour artists’ biographies, dominant approach in the area of trait taxonomies), psychological
whereas others are simply not bothered at personality and art, no doubt because of the eminencies such as Burt (1933) and
all. Yet psychologists have rarely explored
these individual differences. Here we
assess the role of established personality
and intelligence factors as determinants of
artistic preference, interests, knowledge,
and judgment.
Conjure up an image of a person at an
art museum, or pursuing a degree in art. Is
the picture you paint all about age, gender,
and socio-economic status? Or is having an
‘artistic personality’ about being open to
new experiences, whatever walk of life you
tread? Although art has always played a
fundamental role in human society,
psychologists have largely ignored the
question of why some individuals are more
interested in, and concerned with, art than
others, a fact which is manifested from a
very early age. Thus we set out to explore
the possible individual difference factors
that may best describe – and to a certain
degree explain – the artistic personality.

WEBLINKS
BBC art project experiment:
tinyurl.com/q2tp7
Test your personality:
http://similarminds.com/big5.html
The Big Five:
www.personalityresearch.org/bigfive.html

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 Personality and art

Eysenck (1940) examined personality methodological weaknesses, we conducted

differences in ratings of different paintings. what may be the largest-scale study on LIMITATIONS OF
Although the literature is piecemeal, a personality and art preferences ever run. PREVIOUS RESEARCH
wide variety of personality factors has been Developed to tie in with the TV series How ● Choice of stimuli:
investigated, including conservatism, Art Made the World, and run on the BBC a) Different paintings: Different studies used
openness, schizotypy, tolerance for website (see weblinks), 91,162 people took different paintings and styles. Some compared
ambiguity and, in particular, sensation part in this study. Although analysis is still simple vs. complex and representational vs.
seeking (Furnham & Avison, 1997). These preliminary, one clear effect is the abstract, others compared representational
vs. surreal, whilst more comprehensive
studies have shown that there are difference between representational art, studies included abstract, Japanese, and pop-
predictable links between personality and typified by impressionism, and less art (Furnham & Walker, 2001).
specific art preferences, notably the representational art, like abstract b) Familiar painting: Preferences for familiar
correlation between Conservatism or expressionism and cubism. People who paintings may be confounded with
Conscientiousness and preferences for preferred representational art were educational factors. For instance, individuals
traditional/representational, rather than significantly more agreeable and who perceive or identify a painting as famous
may almost feel obliged to like it for its
abstract or cubist, art. Conversely, conscientious, and less open to new cultural value. Familiar stimuli are also less
Openness to Experience has been linked to experiences, than those who rated the more interesting and arousing than unfamiliar ones.
preferences for non-traditional styles. abstract works. c) Prototypical paintings: Some paintings may
Even though personality traits rarely Demographic variables influenced not be classified purely within one school,
explained more than 10 per cent of the preferences, too. Men tended to prefer but represent various artistic movements at
variance in art preferences, methodological cubist and renaissance art, whereas women once and may be more or less influenced by
and psychometric limitations may have preferred traditional Japanese paintings and others.
underestimated the true importance of impressionism. Younger people preferred ● Personality measures: Personality has not always
personality traits as determinants of artistic the more modern forms of abstract and been assessed with the same instruments or in
terms of the same framework, not least because
preferences (see box, right). cubist art, whereas older people preferred of a longstanding debate on the identification of
In an attempt to clarify past impressionism and Japanese art. But the best personality taxonomy to classify
inconsistencies and overcome overall, art preferences seemed more individual differences.The “Big Five” traits were
dependent on personality traits than on only introduced in the early 1990s.
demographic factors. ● Opportunity sampling: Most if not all studies
Factor analysis can help us understand examined small and unrepresentative samples
such as undergraduate psychology students from
how people evaluate paintings. Whilst prestigious universities. Such samples are known
different personality traits are associated to be more ‘intellectually engaged’ than the
with different styles of paintings, there is overall population.
also a general tendency for individuals to
like or dislike all kind of paintings. For
example, you may prefer cubism to visual arts) are also more likely to invest
impressionism, but, at the same time, your time and money in others (e.g. music,
average rating will be higher or lower than performing arts, theatre, etc.) (McManus &
others’. The personality trait that seems Furnham, in press). But which personality
most relevant when it comes to predicting traits may account for this relationship?
higher levels of overall artistic preference As with art preferences, personality
is Openness to Experience, a trait that differences underlying individuals’ art
refers to individual differences in aesthetic interests seem to be captured mostly by the
sensitivity, intellectual curiosity, Openness to Experience dimension. Thus
imagination, and innovation striving. Thus open individuals are more likely to both
‘as neurotics can be used as examples of enjoy art works and engage in art-related
high scores on the dimension of behaviours. However studies have yet to
Neuroticism, [so] artists can be considered examine which specific aspects of
prime examples of individuals high in Openness are relevant with regard to
Openness to Experience’ (McCrae & aesthetic interests. Conceptually, one may
Costa, 1997; p.825). expect the fantasy (dreamy, imaginative
etc), aesthetics (original, versatile etc), and
Art interests feelings (spontaneous, affectionate etc)
A second approach to the study of facets of this trait to be more influential in
personality and art has focused on artistic determining artistic interests than the facets
interests or the extent to which individuals of action, ideas and values would be.
engage in artistic activities, such as visiting McManus and Furnham (in press) have
museums, watching art programmes, recently investigated the main (direct) and
buying and reading art books, etc. Studies interactive (indirect) effects of
have long pointed out that individuals who demographic variables (e.g. gender, age,
invest in one domain of art (e.g. fine or and socio-economic status), previous

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 Personality and art

educational background, and personality

traits in regard to broad aesthetic activities.
Overall, results showed that previous
education – training in the arts rather than
sciences – is a significant predictor of
aesthetic activities, and that highly open
individuals, such as those with low
Agreeableness or low Conscientiousness
scores, tended to be more engaged in
aesthetic activities. Whereas social class
had a predictable impact, there were no
THOMAS HOEPKER (MAGNUM PHOTOS)

significant gender (masculinity-femininity)

or sex (male-female) correlates of aesthetic
activities. Furthermore, aesthetic interests
were found to be more strongly related to
personality traits (notably Openness) than
to social class, age, and gender.

Art judgment
Art judgment is essentially thought of as a
measure of ability rather than taste, and
involves judging the better of two or more cognitive ability measures are significantly It is plausible, then, to imagine that the
products. Most of these studies have relied related to art judgment (see Chamorro- curiosity and problem-solving facets of
on old measures, such as the Meier Art Premuzic & Furnham, 2004, 2005). open individuals make them interested in,
Judgment Test (Meier, 1940) and the Correlations in the range of r = .30 and willing to explore, widely different
Maitland Graves Design Judgment Test between art judgment and traditional forms of art. On the other hand there is a
(Graves, 1948), which require participants intelligence measures suggests that cluster of traits associated with
to distinguish between a geniune artwork intelligence may be necessary, but not Conservatism and Conscientiousness which
and a fake or experimentally modified sufficient to explain individual differences seems to determine lower interests in arts
replica. For instance participants can be in art judgment. as well as a preference for traditional,
presented with a real surrealist Joan Miró In fact, a combination of both representational styles.
painting next to a modified version of this personality and intelligence seems more Although research has shown that
painting (in which one of the abstract effective to predict such differences, artistic preferences, interests, and judgment
objects appears in a different colour or explaining almost 30 per cent of the are highly inter-correlated, it is important
place) and are asked to identify the geniune variance in art judgment. The personality to interpret these findings into a coherent
painting. Both their accuracy and reaction trait that was found to be most strongly model. Preferences may be regarded as an
time can then be measured. associated with art judgment ability is important determinant of interests (e.g. if
Although there remain doubts about the Conscientiousness – lower you like X artist you will invest time and
validity of such measures (i.e. what it Conscientiousness is associated with higher resources in studying X artists), which in
actually means to have a higher art art judgment scores. This finding is turn determine knowledge (if you invest
judgment score), studies have shown that interesting because of the longstanding time and resources in X artist, you will
conceptualisation of Conscientiousness (or know a lot about X), which in turn
equivalent trait) as a negative correlate of determines judgment (if you know a lot
creativity and predictor of more about X, you will be able to discriminate
DISCUSS AND DEBATE conventional artistic preferences. Thus, between X’s real and fake works).
Can we teach people to be interested in art? If so, conscientious individuals would be less Established personality traits (e.g. high
until what age? Is it ever too late to discover art? interested and competent in artistic Openness, low Conscientiousness, etc.)
Should educational programmes in schools be appreciation. may affect both preferences and interests;
tailored to suit individual interests in arts from cognitive ability factors will correlate with
an early age?
Openness to Experience and both knowledge and judgment because
Why can’t we ‘force’ children to be interested in art? the artistic personality individual differences in the capacity to
Should the media devote more time to promoting Clearly, the research we have looked at so learn and retain facts will influence these
art interests? far implicates very specific individual outcomes.
What explains the connection between artistic and differences in the art-sensitive person. Naturally, there are several limitations
political preferences? Although previous education, age, and to the findings we reviewed, and it ought to
Is there a link between insanity and genius? gender show predictable links with art- be emphasised that our findings are
Have your say on these or other issues this article related behaviours, personality (in preliminary and exploratory at this stage.
raises. E-mail ‘Letters’ on [email protected] or particular Openness to Experience) appears First, there is the issue of which specific
contribute to our forum via www.thepsychologist.org.uk. to have a more important role in processes may account for the correlation
determining these outcomes. between established individual difference

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factors and art-related behaviours. Whereas Last, but not least, there is the issue of
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