Effects of expertise on psychological responses to buildings and natural landscapes

Recent work on the aesthetics of the built and natural environment has shown that aesthetic responses are derived from three interrelated psychological dimensions: Fascination (an environment's richness or interest), Coherence (analytic judgments about an environment's organization and construction), and Hominess (feelings of warmth or coziness). However, it is also well-established that individuals differ widely in their responses to environments and objects. In particular, training in the arts has been reliably shown to influence people's aesthetic experiences. Here, we investigated the extent to which expertise in architecture and design influenced responses and preferences to the natural and built environment. Across three studies, we found that the underlying psychological dimensions of Experts and Novices are qualitatively different. We further hypothesized that expertise in architecture renders design features of the environment to be more emotionally and aesthetically pleasing. Consistent with this hypothesis, the Coherence dimension of architecture Experts was more strongly associated with Fascination and Hominess criteria, and had a greater influence on their overall aesthetic experience. Additionally, our findings provide evidence of expertise effects for both rapid and deliberate judgements. In sum, the present study extends a growing body of research on the underlying psychological dimensions of aesthetic experiences of the environment, demonstrating that expertise affects the interrelatedness of these dimensions. •Responses to natural and built environments reduce to a few psychological dimensions.•Underlying psychological dimensions differ for architecture experts and novices.•Expertise exerts “bottom-up” and “top-down” influences on aesthetic experience.•Coherence more relevant to overall aesthetic experience of experts.