Art Appreciation and Gender
An article published by the BBC News describes a recent study conducted by Professor Francisco Ayala, from the University of California Irvine, in which men and women mentally process and appreciate visual art in different ways. Men and women both use the parietal lobe of the brain, which considers spatial relationships, but women use the right and left sides of the lobe while men use only the right side. Women focus on the details of a work while men focus on the “overall image.” Researchers believe that the difference in processing images affects each gender’s opinion of the beauty of a work and stems from human evolution. To read more about the effect of evolution on art appreciation, read the article in its entirety at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7905251.stm