Similarity and preference judgments of Indian and Canadian subjects exposed to Western paintings(1)

Abstract

Reproductions of 10 Western paintings, ranging from the Renaissance to the 20th century, were shown to Indian villagers, Indian students, and Canadian students. Different groups from each population recorded pairwise similarity judgments and pairwise preference judgments. Canadian students also rated the pictures on 14 stylistic, affective, and descriptive rating scales, and others gave similarity judgments with specific reference to composition, content and colouring. Relations among the various responses were examined, and responses of the three populations were compared. The results show significant correlation among populations over pictures with regard to similarity judgments, as well as significant inter‐population differences. There were also significant associations over pictures among the various kinds of responses. There was evidence that certain rating scales reflected the attributes dominating subjects' similarity and preference judgments.