Memento Mori: the influence of personality and individual differences on aesthetic appreciation of death-related artworks by Damien Hirst

ABSTRACT

Art provides a useful setting for the evaluation of death-related concepts. The present study was designed to examine personality and individual difference correlates of the aesthetic preference for the death-related artworks of Damien Hirst. We examined the role of the Big Five personality dimensions, narcissism, alexithymia, religiosity, art interest, aesthetic judgment style, and death obsession in the aesthetic preferences for thirty death-related artworks by Damien Hirst. A sample of 210 individuals was exposed to death-related artworks of this artist and rated their aesthetic appreciation for each work. All participants also completed measures related to other personality and individual difference constructs.

KEYWORDS:

• Death
• art
• aesthetic judgment
• death obsession
• individual differences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shahin Mohammadi-Zarghan

Shahin Mohammadi-Zarghan is a researcher in the field of Experimental Aesthetics, the Psychology of Art, and FilmStudies. His current interests include the Portrayal of Death Anxiety and Moral Dilemmas in different forms of modern art.

Reza Afhami

Reza Afhami is an Associate Professor of Art Studies at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. He is interested in the Psychology of Art, Experimental Aesthetics, and History of Art. His current projects use and combine a number of empirical methods to examine personality, cultural, and emotional correlates of aesthetics experiences.