Not long ago, the Year of the Rabbit stamps painted by Mr. Huang Yongyu became popular .
The blue and magical rabbit that was once popular all over the country | China Post
The name of this stamp is “Guimao Sending Blessings”, but many people think it is too ugly when they read it. “It looks messy ” and ” reminisces of childhood shadows “, which is not acceptable.
Although there are many criticisms, this stamp, which looks disharmonious and unattractive at first glance, sells very well, and it is hard to find a ticket .
A reporter’s investigation found that rabbit tickets also drove the sales of zodiac stamps in previous years | Time Weekly
There are actually precedents for this. One of the most popular postcards in the National Gallery shop is A Grotesque Old Woman , which is also remarkably ugly.
Clearly ugly, this painting by Quentin Matsys from 1513 touches the hearts of tourists and makes them fall in love with it as they pick out souvenirs[1]
Shouldn’t people look away from ugly things? Why would anyone like ugly things?
In fact, the “judgment of beauty and ugliness” and the series of thoughts that follow are very complicated psychological activities. Ugly doesn’t mean uncute, let alone unattractive .
I’m ugly but I’m cute at the same time
Ugliness is not entirely an aesthetic judgment, it is also related to the human behavioral immune system .
The behavioral immune system refers to the behavioral response mechanism developed by humans through evolution, enabling humans to actively avoid stimuli that may be harmful to health and have pathogen risks according to clues in the environment.
These irritants include foul-smelling plants, mosquito-infested ponds, decaying corpses, etc., which often bring germs and parasites.
At the heart of the behavioral immune system is the emotion of disgust, which motivates us to distance ourselves from the object of our disgust. Because humans cannot directly observe parasites or germs with the naked eye, they can only speculate whether stimuli may be dangerous through some highly correlated features, and then avoid them through evolved disgust.
Ugliness is one of the triggers that triggers this disgust .
A researcher once showed a series of pictures to the subjects to test “how disease cues affect people’s aesthetics”, such as the following picture [2]:
The pictures are paired in pairs, the disease hints in the left picture are not prominent, and the disease hints in the right picture are prominent[2]
It was found that people generally believed that the picture on the right was uglier, which stimulated their disgust , and that the effect of ugliness was unique and independent of other negative emotional responses.
Therefore, ugly things are often irregular, disharmonious, disproportionate, and incomplete . These characteristics are reminiscent of dangerous things that instinctively want to avoid, such as decay, decay, and death.
Cuteness is a judgment on another dimension , often associated with big eyes, big heads, and soft bodies (chubby, furry, reminiscent of rua)—baby traits that inspire adults to nurture and protect Instinct, also known as “baby schema” (baby schema) [3].
For example, the mascot of this year’s Spring Festival Gala “Rabbit Yuanyuan” is a typical cute creature with big head, big eyes and soft body | Xinhua News Agency
Cuteness undoubtedly brings positive emotions. Seeing cute things will make people smile knowingly and be in a good mood. It can even improve people’s cognitive level .
Some studies have found that after viewing pictures of puppies and kittens, the subjects’ work efficiency has improved, their attention on work is more concentrated, and they make fewer mistakes, but pictures of adult cats and dogs do not have this effect. Effect [4].
Discordant ugliness and big head are cute , what will be born? That is the attractive “ugly” thing, such as the blob fish that was named the ugliest animal in the world:
It’s ugly at first glance, but many people will feel affection (even if only a little) | the Australian Museum
Another example is Kang Kang, the mascot of the 2016 Spring Festival Gala. The bright high-contrast color is very similar to the warning color of dangerous animals in nature. We instinctively feel that it is ugly and want to stay away. , Furry is also very cute.
Kangkang, who is often called “Monkey Sailei”, the original painting is actually very beautiful
In addition to mixing with cuteness, ugly can sometimes generate enough attractiveness .
I’m ugly but I’m also attractive
Things that are ugly and attractive can be called “safe and attractive ugly” .
Some ugliness will damage people’s physical and mental health and must be avoided as soon as possible. But some ugliness makes people can’t help but look at it again and again, “It ‘s weird! Hey – take another look? “
Someone used the word vector method to mine words related to ugly semantics, including nasty, creepy, filthy, etc. [5]. These are ugliness that “cause harm.”
The word map drawn by the researchers, many words are closely related to ugly[5]
But if “ugliness” has nothing to do with these words, we will find that it is a kind of ugliness that will not hurt us and has no negative impact on our daily life. In a clean, safe modern society, many of the traits that induce “ugly” judgments are less dangerous .
Small eyes are ugly, but they are so cute | Douban Ugly Things Protection Association Group @momo
At the first glance, we instinctively feel disgusted and want to stay away, but when we observe carefully at the second glance, we will find that it is safe and harmless, and will not jump up and eat us. This gap will put us in a “safety danger” “ , similar to roller coasters and bungee jumping, which bring a strange sense of pleasure, and sometimes people can’t help but laugh out loud.
Ugly things can also attract your attention, and every time they appear, you can look at them more, and then the more you look at them, the more pleasing you are, and the more you look at them, the more you like them.
Good-looking or ugly is actually only one aspect, what is more important is whether it is interesting, whether it is new or not, and whether it can attract the attention of contemporary people in the overwhelming information torrent . Ugly is often enough to do that.
The Mere Exposure Effect (Mere Exposure Effect) tells us that the more times something appears in front of us, the more familiar we are with something, the more likely we will love it, the so-called “black to deep natural powder”.
If you look at this rabbit a few more times, will it become more pleasing to you? | China Post
In addition, extreme ugliness can bring some unexpected benefits :
Compared with ordinary people, good-looking people will have some advantages in life, such as interviews will be easier to pass, wages will be raised more easily, etc. This is called the beauty premium (Beauty Premium) [6]. But on the other hand, there is also a “premium” for being ugly : an analysis of a national data set in the United States showed that those in the ugliest 3% earned more than those who were just a little ugly/average [7].
why? Another study offers a possible explanation. The researchers asked the subjects to evaluate their appearance and work ability based on the pictures of scientists. It turned out that people would indeed show more interest in good-looking people, but they thought that scientists who looked uglier could do better. complete the work [8].
This is the Philippine tarsier ( Carlito syrichta ). In science fiction works, this face is very intelligent at first glance. It must be the kind of master character who guides the protagonist at the beginning of the story| nationalgeographic
Putting aside the prejudice brought about by evolution, ugly things can also be “smart and dedicated at first glance”.
Ugly things also have meaning and value
Going back to the rabbit, some people may think that the Spring Festival is a time of saying goodbye to the old and ushering in the new with joy, so they should draw some beautiful and auspicious things to fit the atmosphere of the New Year.
But this kind of “Party A’s demand” may hinder artistic creation. The more restrictive conditions there are in the creative process, the more difficult it is to draw impressive and memorable works.
Works must be “beautiful”, which is actually a requirement for works of art under traditional aesthetics. Artists are obviously not happy to be bound by the traditional framework, so there is a trend of “So Bad It’s Good (SBIG) “ (So Bad It’s Good, SBIG) in contemporary art, and the Museum of Bad Art (Museum of Bad Art) comes into play However, the most impressive work on display is ” Lucy in the Field with Flowers ” by Anonymous.
According to the museum, they reject far more works than they accept. To get them to accept, the most important point is ” with a strong expressive purpose, but the technique is unmatched “.
Artists also want to innovate, but there are too few “beautiful” things, and too many creations by predecessors, it is difficult to find new ideas, so it is also necessary to start exploring new possibilities for “ugliness”, expand the concept space, and express freely. very normal thing.
Even “ugliness” can be divided into intentional, intentional, and unique ugliness, and unintentional, shoddy ugliness . The former can be more tolerant.
Why tolerate ugly things? We can find inspiration in natural ecosystems.
Some associations have specially organized the special activity of “Save Ugly” to guide people to pay attention to ugly wild animals | Wilderness Society
The Ugly Animal Preservation Society (Ugly Animal Preservation Society) designated September 8 every year as Ugly Animal Day. The reason for launching this festival is simple. Endangered animals that look cute can easily attract people’s attention, while animals that do not conform to human aesthetics may go extinct silently .
This association lists the fat-headed fish as the ugliest animal. The logo is twisted and ugliness on purpose, and the slogan “We can’t all be giant pandas!” is also full of complaints | uglyanimalsoc
For natural ecosystems, every animal is important, and extinction may have irreversible consequences.
The tolerance of ugly things is actually the preservation of diversity. As long as there are no crimes and there are more aesthetic genres, there will be many more possible choices. An ugly thing that fails in the eyes of the public also has a chance to find someone who will fall in love with it.
For example, the armadillo shoes designed by Alexander Mai meet Lady Gaga
If you find that “ugly thing” you like, please don’t care about the surprised eyes of others, and continue to like them firmly!
As for the blue rabbit, it may become the king of the next generation of emoticons!
references
[1] https://ift.tt/Hteg9io
[2]Klebl, C., Greenaway, KH, Rhee, JJS, & Bastian, B. (2021). Ugliness judgments alert us to cues of pathogen presence. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(5), 617-628.
[3] https://ift.tt/G2eFXgl
[4]Nittono, H., Fukushima, M., Yano, A., & Moriya, H. (2012). The power of kawaii: Viewing cute images promotes a careful behavior and narrows attentional focus. PloS one, 7(9 ), e46362.
[5] https://ift.tt/tAPgOMr
[6]Sierminska, E. (2015). Beauty and the Labor Market. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition., 383-391.
[7]Kanazawa, S., & Still, MC (2018). Is there really a beauty premium or an ugliness penalty on earnings?. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(2), 249-262.
[8]Gheorghiu, AI, Callan, MJ, & Skylark, WJ (2017). Facial appearance affects science communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(23), 5970-5975.
Author: Su Qinian
Editor: You Shiyou
an AI
Leaving aside the topic of beauty and ugliness, the editor said that he resonated with the artist on the point of exhaustion of topics and looking for topics everywhere…
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