A Study Of The Relationship Between The Aesthetics Of Calligraphy And The Personality Evaluation Of Writers

The view of "Calligraphy-Person resemblance" refers to a viewpoint that associates the calligraphy works with the writers and considers there is a certain consistency between them.This study aimed to explain the relationship between the aesthetics of calligraphy and the personality evaluation of writers from the perspective of appreciators.The entire study consisted of two parts:Study 1 explored how calligraphy aesthetics affects the personality evaluation of the writers from the perspective of "judge a writer from his works".Using 3(aesthetic level:beauty,medium,ugly)x 3(font type:regular script,cursive script,official script)two factors within-subjects design,The experimental materials were 90 calligraphy works with same content but different aesthetic level and font types.85 college students without any calligraphic foundation were selected to score the five dimensions of the writer's personality.The results showed that the main effects and interaction effects of aesthetic degree and font type were significant in terms of the four dimensions of extraversion,agreeableness,conscientiousness and neuroticism.With regard to the dimension of openness,the main effect of aesthetic degree was not significant while font type was significant and the interaction between the two was significant.Research conclusions:(1)The degree of beauty of the calligraphy font(beauty/middle/ugly)showed an influence on the subject's assessment of the writer's personality traits.Appreciators believed that the more beautiful the words are,the more likely the calligraphers are to have positive personality traits.And this was consistent with the view that "What is beautiful is good";(2)The type of calligraphy font(regular script/cursive script/official script)affected the subjects' assessment of the writer's personality traits,appreciators tended to think that writers of different font types have different personality traits.Those who write cursive scripts are more extroverted,easygoing,more creative,people who write regular script are more calm and reliable,and those who write official script are more introverted and not easy to get along with.Study 2 explored whether the writer's personality evaluation will affect the appreciator's aesthetic evaluation of his calligraphy works from the perspective of judge a calligraphic work by its writer".The experiment used 2(vanlence:positive,negative)x 3(category:intelligence,temperament,morality)x 3(aesthetic level:beauty,medium,ugly)three-factor mixed design.The valence of personality words was within-subject variable,the category of personality words and the aesthetic level of the works were between-subject variables.90 college students with no calligraphic foundation(42 males and 48 females)were randomly divided into two groups(45 in each group).Before the experiment,all the subjects were required to score the aesthetics of 90 calligraphy works with different aesthetic levels.After one week,the 90 calligraphy works matching the positive/negative traits were again evaluated for the second time.The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in the first aesthetic score.The difference in the second score was significant,and the score of the positive group was significantly higher than the negative group(the results were consistent at different aesthetic levels).The interaction between the valence and category was significant,and the aesthetic score under the negative moral label was significantly lower than the negative temperament and negative intelligence.Research conclusions:(1)the valence of the writer's personality trait affected the viewer's aesthetic evaluation on the calligraphy.Appreciators believed that the works from writers with positive traits is more beautiful than that from writers with negative traits,which conforms to "What is good is beautiful”;(2)the category of the writer's personality trait affected the appreciators' aesthetic evaluation on the calligraphy works.Intelligence,temperament and morality all had an impact on the aesthetics of the calligraphy works,but the morality showed greatest influence,especially under the negative label,compared with negative intelligence and negative temperament,appreciators were more susceptible to negative morality.In summary,this study provided data support for the relationship between calligraphy aesthetics and writers' personality evaluation,further proved the existence of the concept of"Calligraphy-Person resemblance".It enriched the research of stereotypes and halo effect in the field of calligraphy aesthetics and had a certain guiding role in calligraphy aesthetics and handwriting impression management in daily life.