Separating art from the artist: The effect of negative affective knowledge on ERPs and aesthetic experience

Abstract

Some artists do terrible things. But does knowing something bad about an artist affect the way we perceive the work? Despite increased public interest, this question has yet to be addressed empirically. In this pre-registered study, we used aesthetic ratings and electrophysiological brain responses to shed light on the issue. We found that paintings of artists associated with negative-social biographical knowledge were liked less and found more arousing than paintings of artists associated with neutral information. Such paintings also elicited an enhanced brain response associated with fast and reflexive processing of emotional stimuli (early posterior negativity; EPN). Evaluations of quality and later, more controlled brain responses (late positive potential; LPP) were not affected. Reflecting the complexity of aesthetic experience, this pattern of results became more differentiated when the visual relatedness between the contents of the painting and the artist-related information was taken into account. Overall, our findings suggest that emotional aspects involved in art reception are not spontaneously separated from the artist, whilst evaluative judgments and more elaborate processing may be.