People with this Personality Trait are more Inclined to Appreciate Art

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Have you ever found yourself dragging a less-than-enthusiastic friend along behind you during a visit to Melbourne’s NGV–or, perhaps, Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art?

According to a recent study at the University of Melbourne, there could be a scientific reason why some people enjoy art more than others.

Researchers found that people who are open to new experiences also have a greater visual awareness. This means that when viewing an artwork, people with a higher degree of openness can see more details–they’re more likely to notice a fading blue gradient in a right hand corner whilst also looking at a painting’s main subject matter.

The study’s lead author, Anna Antinori, told New Scientist, “They seem to have a more flexible gate for the visual information that breaks through into their consciousness.”

Antinori and her team came to this conclusion by asking 123 university students to partake in a binocular test, where they were simultaneously shown a red image in one eye and a green image in the other. For most, the brain can only compute one image at a time, meaning most students saw the image flip between red and green. However, some students viewed a patchwork of red and green in the binoculars–otherwise known as mixed perception.

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