Abstract
This study follows up our previous research concerning the attractiveness of diverse floral traits for humans. Although we observed some general preferences - beautiful flowers were prototypical (radially symmetrical, simple), had sharp contours and blue color - we have to ask whether there are any individual differences in the estimation of flower beauty.
There is some evidence that color or habitat preferences are influenced by the rater's age, sex, level of expertise, education and other individual factors. It is possible that these individual differences in preference also apply to flowers.
To examine this issue, we created an online survey in which residents of the Czech Republic (n = 1650) rated the perceived beauty of 52 flower stimuli of diverse shapes and colors. The survey also contained several sets of questions concerning basic information about the respondents (sex, age, education, profession, etc.), their knowledge of plants, attitude towards plants and some psychological characteristics.
We performed an exploratory factor analysis to reduce the number of questions into several meaningful variables. We created general linear models to compare the relative importance of those variables on the general preference of flowers and the preference of flower colors and shapes.
Our preliminary results suggest that several variables had a significant positive effect on the general preference of flowers. The most notable were: age, level of expertise and presence of plants during childhood.
Outgoing and artistic people and people who considered other senses than sight as equally important, also rated flowers as more beautiful. Sex had no effect.
Sex, age or level of expertise had no effect on the preference of flower color. Men, older people and experts rated atypical flowers higher than others.
This study may be useful to anyone who seeks to better understand the individual differences in the perception of the world around us.