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Psychological models of art reception must be empirically grounded

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Marcos Nadal ,
Oshin Vartanian  and
Martin Skov
Marcos Nadal
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 07122. [email protected]
Oshin Vartanian
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada. [email protected]
Martin Skov
Affiliation:
Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Copenhagen 2650, Denmark. [email protected] Center for Decision Neuroscience, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen 2000, Denmark.
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Abstract

We commend Menninghaus et al. for tackling the role of negative emotions in art reception. However, their model suffers from shortcomings that reduce its applicability to empirical studies of the arts: poor use of evidence, lack of integration with other models, and limited derivation of testable hypotheses. We argue that theories about art experiences should be based on empirical evidence.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e371
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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