Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture

What the study found

Curvilinear interiors were more often rated beautiful and recruited anterior cingulate activity during beauty judgments; contour did not significantly alter approach-avoidance decisions.

Limitations

Image-based rather than embodied architecture; sample size typical of early fMRI; beauty and approach are distinct outcomes.

Neurodesign interpretation

The key finding is the dissociation: people can find a curved room more beautiful without becoming more likely to enter it. Aesthetic reward and behavior are not interchangeable.

Possible design implications

Use curvature as an aesthetic lever, not a universal safety or approach rule.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as the canonical architectural curvature neuroaesthetics study.

Study design

fMRI and behavioral experiment

Population

Adult participants

Setting

fMRI viewing of interior images

Field

Neuroaesthetics, architecture

Mechanism

Reward valuation, aesthetic appraisal

Spatial variable

Curvilinear versus rectilinear contour

Keywords

curvature, fMRI, beauty, architecture, ACC