Liking for Abstract and Representational Art: National Identity as an Art Appreciation Heuristic

Attitudes toward artwork are influenced by many individual and societal factors. One factor that has not been investigated is whether the viewer considers the artist to be an ingroup or an outgroup member. Drawing on 2 social psychological theories-social identity theory and uncertainty-identity theory-we proposed that people can show ingroup bias in evaluating artwork, and that this is more likely when the viewer lacks art-related expertise and experience. We conducted a 3-factor mixed between- and within-participants experiment (N ± 335). American and Italian participants evaluated 2 pieces of abstract art and two pieces of representational art that were attributed to fictional American or Italian artists. The key prediction, that participants would evaluate pieces of art, specifically abstract art, more favorably if the artist was a conational than a national outgroup member, was supported, but only among American participants (the Americans had less art-related experience and were more aesthetically uncertain than the Italians). Americans liked American art more than Italian art, American art was liked more by Americans than Italians, and the preference for representational over abstract art disappeared among Americans evaluating American art. Some limitations of the study and future directions for research are discussed.