![]() To date, we can assert that research has made clear that humans prefer curved shapes to their angular counterparts: several studies (e.g., Silvia & Barona, 2009 Watson et al., 2012 Bar & Neta, 2006) have shown that curved lines and symmetrical shapes are preferred given their association with the happiness expression and the infant face, containing more curvilinear elements. ![]() ![]() The ability to easily recognize the geometric patterns (i.e., lines, curves and angles) associated to such dangerous or rewarding objects has deep evolutionary meaning, since all these items automatically arouse specific emotions and behaviors that are crucial for survival (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008 Ohman & Mineka, 2001). For example, emotionally-charged expressions and baby faces draw attention more than neutral faces (Brosch et al., 2007 Palermo & Rhodes, 2007), whereas other stimuli can also strongly grasp our attention when present in a crowd, including knives, guns, syringes and dangerous animals (e.g., snakes, spiders), namely negative/threatening stimuli which require a rapid response. The study of how more complex stimuli (composed of combinations of straight lines, curved lines and angles) are perceived from an affective point of view, has been deepened two and a half centuries after Hogarth: several evidence have shown that biological and affective cues, such as emotional faces, (Gronau et al., 2003 Sui & Liu, 2009 Vuilleumier, 2005) capture attention more than do most common stimuli without a biological or affective relevance (e.g., Ro et al., 2001). The study of how people associate geometric figures with the self or with other identities giving them an implicit socio-affective connotation, is interesting for all the disciplines interested in the automatic affective processes activated by visual stimuli.Įven before the foundation of empirical aesthetics as an academic discipline, the English painter William Hogarth argued that S-shaped, or serpentine, lines, which he called “the lines of beauty”, are more productive of beauty and lively ornamentation, because they can vary both in length and in degree of curvature, whereas straight lines vary only in length (Corradi & Munar, 2019 Hogarth, 1753). On the other hand, the possibility that personality traits can modulate such associations was not confirmed. As predicted, we found that participants associate more often the circle with the self, both the circle and the square with the best friend, whereas they matched angular shapes (both the triangle and the square) to the stranger. Moreover, we investigated whether these associations are modulated by 3 personality traits: aggressivity, social fear and empathy. We hypothesized that the circle would be more associated with the self, the square with the friend and the triangle with the stranger. Through 2 online surveys we asked participants to associate a geometric shape, chosen among a circle, a square and a triangle, to each of three identities, namely “you” (the self), “your best friend” or “a stranger”. However, to date, no-one has investigated the preference to associate simple geometric shapes to personal identities, including one’s own, that of a close acquainted, or that of a stranger. ![]() ![]() Several studies have shown that rounded shapes evoke positive feelings due to their link with happy/baby-like expressions, compared with sharp angular shapes, usually associated with anger and threatening objects having negative valence. For more than a century, psychologists have been interested in how visual information can arouse emotions. ![]()
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