Who's afraid of red, yellow and blue? Need for cognitive closure predicts aesthetic preferences

We investigated the relationship between need for cognitive closure (NFC), that is, the need for a clear, predictable and unambiguous world, and aesthetic preferences. Study 1, a correlational field study, reveals that individual differences in NFC are related to liking for a play with an open ending, such that individuals high in NFC liked the ending of this play less than their low-NFC counterparts. Study 2 demonstrates that high-NFC individuals prefer figurative paintings to abstract paintings. In Study 3, NFC was experimentally varied by means of a time-pressure manipulation. Participants who judged paintings under time-pressure (high NFC) showed a stronger preference for figurative rather than abstract paintings, compared with participants in the control condition (low NFC). We discuss implications and outline directions for future research.