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Pedestrian streets are vital for urban livability, tourism, and cultural identity. This research examines how human-perspective spatial form influences aesthetic perception, using a tourist street in central Luoyang as a case site. Based on perceptual evaluations from participants in Luoyang and Xi'an, the research isolates key structural elements and reveals the underlying relationship between spatial form and tourist aesthetic preferences. Deep learning models were used to extract spatial indicators from real-world streetscapes, aligning them with abstracted representations. Modelling the extracted indicators with a Generalized Additive Model (GAM), the study enables large-scale analysis and captures both individual spatial characteristics and their interactive effects on aesthetic perception. This approach not only models complex nonlinear relationships but also provides a solid foundation for aesthetic prediction and assessment. The findings identify the proportion of sky (PS), ground area (PG), and spatial depth (D) as key factors influencing aesthetic judgments, while the proportion of vertical elements (PV) and the ground-to-vertical ratio (G/V) show high multicollinearity. Additionally, street-level average aesthetics tend to be rated higher than point-wise average aesthetics. These insights allow for the layout and adjustment of spatial form by balancing the aesthetic preferences of local and non-local visitors, ultimately enhancing pedestrian street aesthetics.

Green space in cities contributes to the quality of life for city dwellers, e.g., by increasing the opportunity for recreation. However, perception of urban green space is influenced by multiple factors. We investigated effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitudes on visual and auditory perceptions of urban green space. Field measurements of biodiversity were conducted in six sites across an urban gradient in Gothenburg, Sweden, and three categories of biodiversity—high, medium, low—were established. Households were sent a survey on aesthetic perception of urban green space, sound perception and the importance of trees and plants for the perception of bird species. Each respondent focused on the site that was located nearby. The environment-related attitudes comprised “Nature-oriented” and “Urban-oriented” persons and were based on participants’ own attitude estimations. It was shown that participants’ “subjective” aesthetic and sound-related perception of urban greenery were in line with the “objectively” measured subdivisions of high, medium and low biodiversity. So also were their estimations of the importance of trees and plants for perception of bird species in urban greenery, although differing only between high and medium/low biodiversity conditions. Persons rating themselves as highly nature-oriented were shown to give higher scores to urban green space aesthetics and to value greenery-related sounds higher, and to attach greater importance to trees and plants in their perception of bird species in urban greenery, than less nature-oriented persons. Highly urban-oriented persons compared to less urban-oriented persons did the same, but only regarding urban greenery-related aesthetics and sounds of nature. We conclude that environment-related attitudes influence perceptions of green space. Moreover, our findings support the idea that biodiversity per se also influences perceptions; people value green space significantly more with high than with low measured biodiversity. Urban planning needs to provide city inhabitants with green spaces that are species-rich, lush, varied and rich with natural sounds.

Background Digital culture has made social media a central space for presenting aesthetic ideals and beauty norms. Exposure to curated visuals and trends is associated with body perception and definitions of beauty. Social media aesthetic orientations are closely related to self‑image and broader aesthetic judgments. This study examines the associations between social media aesthetic orientation (SMAO), body perception, beauty perception, and aesthetic perception. Methods The sample comprised 167 active social media users from Turkey, aged 18 to 45, including both individuals with and without a history of aesthetic surgery. A correlational survey design and quantitative methods were employed. Data were collected using validated measures and analyzed with a generalized linear model. Results SMAO showed positive associations with aesthetic perception (β = 0.59, p  < 0.001) and beauty perception (β = 0.62, p  < 0.001), but not with body perception (β = − 0.04, p  > 0.05). Beauty perception mediated the relationship between SMAO and aesthetic perception (β = 0.14, p  < 0.01), explaining 20% of the variance, whereas body perception did not. Engagement with cosmetic surgery and beauty trends strengthened the association between beauty and aesthetic perception (β = 0.22, p  < 0.001). Gender moderated these paths, strengthening the beauty–aesthetic perception link and weakening the body perception link for women. Education played a limited role, while age and marital status showed no significant effects. Conclusions The findings suggest that social media’s emphasis on aesthetics is more closely tied to the internalization of cultural beauty ideals than to individual body perception. Gender plays a critical role, with women prioritizing beauty standards over body satisfaction in their aesthetic preferences. The study highlights associative rather than causal relationships and calls for further research across different cultural contexts. This research contributes to understanding how digital culture relates to contemporary aesthetics by emphasizing perceived beauty over body perception.

This study aims to examine the aesthetic perception of landscape elements in university campuses by male and female students. The significance of an aesthetically appealing and comfortable campus environment for enhancing social and academic experiences, as well as student well-being, underscores the relevance of this research. The objective of the study is to identify and analyze differences in aesthetic evaluations of various landscape design elements between male and female respondents. A survey was conducted using semantic differential scales based on criteria of sensory-hedonic and evaluative judgment. Data analysis involved the use of Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Student’s two-sample t-test, and Pearson correlation analysis. The sample consisted of 500 students (50% male and 50% female) from five universities in Russia. The natural environment was categorized into external and internal levels of perception. The external level includes criteria such as color, shape, proportions, and other physical characteristics of the landscape. The internal level encompasses the social and cultural characteristics of individuals. Additional criteria considered include functionality, environmental friendliness, impact on psycho-emotional states, and social aspects of interaction with the landscape. The findings of this study may also be applied to broader contexts, such as urban landscapes and public spaces.

Background Medical aesthetics, as an interdisciplinary field integrating medicine and aesthetics, requires practitioners to possess both technical proficiency and refined aesthetic judgment. However, current training mainly emphasizes technical skills, neglecting systematic aesthetic development. This study evaluated the effectiveness of integrating art education into postgraduate medical aesthetics training on students’ aesthetic perception. Methods A single-arm pre-post study was conducted with 27 medical aesthetics postgraduate students, representing the complete eligible population from the First Affiliated Hospital of University of South China during the study period. Following Kern’s 6-step curriculum development approach, we designed a 5-week art education program incorporating painting appreciation and analysis (4 weeks), dance appreciation and analysis (4 weeks), and practical art exercises with clinical case analysis (1 week). Students’ aesthetic perception abilities were objectively assessed using the Visual Aesthetic Sensitivity Test-Revised (VAST-R) and facial attractiveness image selection tasks before and after the intervention. Course quality was evaluated using a simplified Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). Results Students showed significant improvement in aesthetic perception performance. VAST-R mean scores increased significantly from 17.89 ± 2.87 pre-intervention to 20.93 ± 2.15 post-intervention (paired t-test: t(26) = 4.563, p  < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.878), representing a 17.0% improvement. Accuracy in facial aesthetic judgment improved: students correctly identifying the most attractive male face increased from 16 (59.3%) to 26 (96.3%), while those correctly identifying the most attractive female face increased from 18 (66.7%) to 25 (92.6%) (male: p  = 0.002; female: p  = 0.016). Course evaluation yielded a mean satisfaction score of 3.56 ± 0.89 (5-point scale), with highest ratings for overall course quality (3.67 ± 0.88) and lowest for clinical application of aesthetic abilities (3.37 ± 0.93). Conclusions This exploratory single-arm study demonstrates significant improvements in aesthetic assessment performance following a 5-week art education intervention among medical aesthetics postgraduate students. The observed improvements in both abstract aesthetic sensitivity and facial aesthetic judgment tasks suggest potential benefits of integrating art education into medical aesthetics training curricula. Future research should explore the integration of art education into clinical practice through extended interventions and objective clinical evaluation components.

Against the backdrop of rapid digitization of cultural heritage, assessing the public’s genuine perception of digital heritage has become a critical issue in the study of cultural sustainability and communication. This study takes the “Digital Dunhuang Museum” exhibition in Guangzhou as a case, focusing on the differences and underlying mechanisms in public aesthetic perception of digital Dunhuang murals. Integrating eye-tracking experiments, subjective image evaluations, and semi-structured interviews, the research innovatively introduces multimodal visual behaviour and physiological data as core indicators in the field of digital cultural heritage. It systematically compares the explicit attitudes and implicit responses of audiences with different artistic backgrounds during the aesthetic perception process. The results reveal that participants with an art-related background show significantly higher scores in subjective dimensions such as pleasure, attraction, and visiting intention. They also demonstrate stronger visual engagement and emotional arousal in physiological dimensions, including the number of fixations, total fixation duration, and pupil diameter changes. This study constructs a mechanism of aesthetic perception for digital cultural heritage based on “visual attention–cognitive processing–emotional arousal”, enriching the public’s understanding of digital cultural heritage conservation and communication from both cognitive and emotional perspectives. The findings provide empirical support for the design of digital exhibitions of cultural heritage and expand the methodological and cognitive approaches in cultural sustainability research, offering important theoretical and practical implications.

Color is one of the essential visual aesthetic design elements for shopping mall building facades, dramatically influencing customers’ aesthetic perceptions, emotions, and behavioral responses. This study explains the relationship between shopping mall facade color and customers’ emotions, aesthetic perceptions, and behavioral responses by applying the S-O-R model. A total of 149 subjects evaluated ten computer-generated shopping malls with different façade colors, and each subject was asked to rate their emotional and aesthetic perceptions and decide whether or not to enter the shopping mall. The results indicate that neutral colors lead to higher pleasure and higher aesthetic perceptions; warm tones and high brightness lead to more positive emotions and aesthetic perceptions; color is positively correlated with aesthetic perceptions; and emotions and aesthetic perceptions positively influence entry decisions, with pleasure being a key predictor of entry decisions. This study elucidates for the first time the process by which shopping mall façade color affects shoppers’ aesthetic perceptions, emotions, and entry decisions; expands the theoretical literature related to environmental psychology; and at the same time, bridges the theoretical gap of shopping mall façade color as a stimulus in the S-O-R model, and provides designers and operators with a strategy for visual attractiveness in the color of the shopping mall’s architectural façade.

Purpose This study aims to explore image-based visual price determinants (image features and visual aesthetic perception) and how image features affect Airbnb listing price on a sharing accommodation platform. Design/methodology/approach The study uses an SOR model and a hedonic price model to examine the connections between the characteristics of image features, visual aesthetic perception and Airbnb listing prices. The model is then examined by an econometric model using data from Insideairbnb.com. Findings Empirical results revealed that image features have a significant positive effect on visual aesthetic perception, visual aesthetic perception has a significant positive effect on Airbnb listing price and visual aesthetic perception has a significant mediating effect between image features and Airbnb listing price. Originality/value This study contributes to the relationship and effect mechanism among image features, visual aesthetic perception and Airbnb listing price and has some implications for both property operators and the sharing accommodation platform. 目的 本研究探讨了基于图像的视觉价格决定因素（图像特征和视觉美学感知）以及图像特征如何影响共享住宿平台Airbnb价格。 设计/方法/途径 本研究采用SOR模型和hedonic价格模型来检验图像特征特征、视觉美感与Airbnb房源价格之间的关系。然后使用Insideairbnb.com上的数据, 通过计量经济学模型对该模型进行检验。 研究结果 实证结果显示：1）图像特征对视觉美学感知有显著的正向影响; 2）视觉美学感知对Airbnb价格有显著的正向影响; 3）视觉美学感知在图像特征和Airbnb价格之间有显著的中介效应。 独创性/价值 本研究有助于探讨图像特征、视觉美学感知和Airbnb价格之间的关系和影响机制, 对房源经营者和共享住宿平台都有一定的借鉴意义。 Objetivo Este estudio explora los determinantes visuales del precio basados en las imágenes (características de las imágenes y percepción estética visual) y cómo afectan las características de las imágenes al precio de los anuncios de Airbnb en una plataforma de alojamiento compartido. Diseño/metodología/enfoque El estudio emplea un modelo SOR y un modelo de precios hedónicos para examinar las conexiones entre las características de los rasgos de la imagen, la percepción estética visual y los precios de Airbnb. A continuación, se examina el modelo mediante un modelo econométrico utilizando datos de Insideairbnb.com. Resultados Los resultados empíricos revelan que 1) las características de la imagen tienen un efecto positivo significativo sobre la percepción estética visual, 2) la percepción estética visual tiene un efecto positivo significativo sobre el precio de los anuncios de Airbnb, y 3) la percepción estética visual tiene un efecto mediador significativo entre las características de la imagen y el precio de los anuncios de Airbnb. Originalidad/valor Este estudio contribuye al mecanismo de relación y efecto entre las características de la imagen, la percepción estética visual y el precio del anuncio de Airbnb, y tiene algunas implicaciones tanto para los operadores inmobiliarios como para la plataforma de alojamiento compartido.

Background The aim of the study was to determine the facial divergence and lip position combinations that are most and least preferred, and to investigate whether age or gender has an impact on these preferences. Methods The current investigation was carried out on a sample of 1077 individuals who were not experts in the field (253 men and 824 females). The research employed black silhouette photographs of profiles featuring different lip locations and profile divergences. The recruitment of participants was conducted in order to assess the attractiveness of the profiles, employing a Likert scale. The various positions of the lips and variations in facial profiles were thoroughly categorized. Results were analyzed using the Chi-square test. Results The findings of the research demonstrated that aesthetic perceptions displayed diversity when considering different lip locations and profile divergences. It was shown that neutral lip positions were predominantly favored, accounting for approximately 40.2% of the total frequencies in the anterior diverging group. It is noteworthy to highlight the aesthetically pleasing features exhibited by those with the most prominent lip position, occurring at a frequency of 10.9% in straight-diverging group. In the posterior divergent group, the most protruded lip position, showed very attractive aesthetics with frequency (7.1%). Gender, age, region, and level of education had significant influence on aesthetic perception. Conclusions The variety of aesthetic preferences is influenced by the location of the lips and the divergence of the facial profile, resulting in different outcomes within the categories of anterior, straight, and posterior divergence. Clinicians are advised to customize the treatment regimen in order to correspond with the unique desires and preferences of the patient.

While the view that we perceive aesthetic properties may seem intuitive, it has received little in the way of explicit defence. It also gives rise to a puzzle. The first strand of this puzzle is that we often cannot perceive aesthetic properties of artworks without training, yet much aesthetic training involves the acquisition of knowledge, such as when an artwork was made, and by whom. How, if at all, can this knowledge affect our perception of an artwork’s aesthetic properties? The second strand of the puzzle arises when we widen the scope of aesthetic experience. The very same aesthetic properties that seem to require training for their perception in artworks do not appear require training to perceive in objects of everyday aesthetic appreciation and natural phenomena. In this paper I argue that a prominent extant attempt to explain how training is compatible with aesthetic perception—cognitive permeation—is an inadequate solution. I also develop a positive view of aesthetic perception that provides a unified solution to both strands of the puzzle.