Abstract
It has been known that reading/writing direction habits affect aesthetic preferences regarding picture direction. For example, people who read and write rightward aesthetically prefer pictures depicted facing to the right more than pictures depicted facing to the left, and vice versa. Accordingly, it has been suggested that a psychological assimilation occurs between the direction of reading/writing habits and the preferred direction of a picture’s configuration. However, such claims are primarily based on the results of cross-cultural studies comparing countries or cultures that do not have the same reading/writing directions. If so, does the directional change of reading/writing habits within a culture induce changes in the picture display? Korea is a good place to ask this question because it underwent gradual changes in reading/writing direction habits, from leftward to rightward, during the 20th century. Thus, reviewing the pictures that were depicted during that time may provide insight into how reading/writing direction habits influenced the preference of picture direction. In this study, we randomly collected 3,920 hand drawings and 17,477 photos published in Chosun Ilbo, the oldest newspaper in Korea from 1927-2013, and we counted the direction of pictures: leftward or rightward. The regression analysis shows that the direction of the drawings showed a clear shift from the left to the right, but the direction of photos showed no change. The result indicates that a change in reading/writing direction habits induce a change in drawing habits to the same direction, but its effect differs depending on the picture type. For the difference, we argue that reading/writing habit may share a physical constraint more with drawing actions than with taking photo actions.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015