We are driven not only by our need for security but also by curiosity and exploration, the potential for new experience and insight (see also “Aesthetic Aha” effect, Muth & Carbon, 2013). This is why we seek order and at the same can be stimulated and motivated by deviations from order or highly complex order (see also studies on “Unity-in-Variety”, Berghman & Hekkert, 2017). In our studies, volunteers created digital mosaic-like patterns with the software Flextiles (Westphal-Fitch et al., 2012). These images aroused most interest in another group of participants if they combined order with complexity or showed deviations from obvious order (see Figure 1 for exaples; Muth, Westphal-Fitch, & Carbon, in press). We suggest that we do not enjoy simple order as much as the process of ordering and therefore we are fascinated by images that allow for active engagement — even in perceptually challenging contexts.

Figure 1. Mosaic-like patterns created via Flextiles, see Muth, Westphal-Fitch, & Carbon, in press.

Read more:

• Muth C., Carbon, C. C. (2013). The Aesthetic Aha: On the pleasure of having insights into Gestalt. Acta Psychologica, 144(1), 25-30. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.05.001

• Muth, C., Westphal-Fitch, G., & Carbon, C. C. (in press). Seeking (dis)order. Ordering appeals but slight disorder and complex order trigger interest. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. doi: 10.1037/aca0000284

References:

• Berghman, Michaël & Hekkert, Paul. (2017). Towards a unified model of aesthetic pleasure in design. New Ideas in Psychology, 47, 136-144. doi: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.004

• Westphal-Fitch, G., Huber, L., Gómez, J. C., & Fitch, W. T. (2012). Production and perception rules underlying visual patterns: Effects of symmetry and hierarchy. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society:Biological Sciences, 367, 2007-2022. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0098