Effects of typicality and novelty on preferences for designed objects: A test of the MAYA hypothesis
Effects of typicality and novelty on preferences for designed objects: A test of the MAYA hypothesis
Effects of typicality and novelty on preferences for designed objects: A test of the MAYA hypothesis
Study One: Computer Mouse Design
What causes us to like how a designed object looks? Psychologists interested in this question have often considered how two cognitive variables — typicality and novelty — drive affective responses to designed products. This has led to the formulation of the ‘Most Advanced Yet Acceptable’ (MAYA) principle, which is a two-factor theory that proposes that, in many situations, individuals prefer a product to be novel (i.e. unlike designs that we have seen before), but only if it is still fairly typical (i.e. similar enough to our prototype for the design category to still be recognizable). The MAYA principle has received mixed support, and so in the present research we set out to test it using a new class of objects — computer mice. Participants viewed computer mice, and rated them in terms of their novelty, typicality, and visual pleasingness. We found that (1) ratings of novelty and typicality showed an almost perfect negative correlation (i.e. they are not independent factors), and (2) ratings of pleasingness were higher when the computer mice were less novel/ more typical. We conclude that the MAYA principle may provide a better explanation of product aesthetics in some product domains than in others.
Study Two: Fountain Pen Framing Study
Participants will complete an experiment consisting of three blocks of trials. Each block will consist of eight trials featuring eight different fountain pens, varying in size and shape.
In the first block, they will use a slider to rate how typical each pen looks from 1-7. Half of the participants will be collection participants and will rate how typical the pen looks for a pen collection. The other half will be daily use participants and will rate how typical the pen looks for daily use.
Instruction on Typicality Rating
Rating Scale
In the second block, they will use a slider to rate how novel each pen looks from 1-7. Collection participants will rate how novel the pen looks for a pen collection, and daily use participants will rate how novel the pen looks for daily use.
Instruction on Novelty Rating
In the third block, they will use a slider to rate how much they like looking at each pen from 1-7. Collection participants will rate how much they like looking at the pen and will be reminded that it is intended for a pen collection. Daily use participants will rate how much they like looking at the pen and will be reminded that it is intended for daily use.
Instruction on Preference Rating
Our question is whether the collection vs. daily use condition will influence the relationship between liking ratings and typicality ratings and between liking ratings and novelty ratings. Pilot testing suggests that participants in the collection condition will show a stronger correlation between liking ratings and typicality ratings compared to participants in the daily use condition.
The Collection Priming
The Personal Use Priming
In both the collection and daily use conditions, for each participant, we computed the Pearson’s correlation between that participant’s typicality ratings and their liking ratings. We also conducted a between-subjects T-test to compare the correlation values between the two groups.
Study One: Computer Mouse Design
What causes us to like how a designed object looks? Psychologists interested in this question have often considered how two cognitive variables — typicality and novelty — drive affective responses to designed products. This has led to the formulation of the ‘Most Advanced Yet Acceptable’ (MAYA) principle, which is a two-factor theory that proposes that, in many situations, individuals prefer a product to be novel (i.e. unlike designs that we have seen before), but only if it is still fairly typical (i.e. similar enough to our prototype for the design category to still be recognizable). The MAYA principle has received mixed support, and so in the present research we set out to test it using a new class of objects — computer mice. Participants viewed computer mice, and rated them in terms of their novelty, typicality, and visual pleasingness. We found that (1) ratings of novelty and typicality showed an almost perfect negative correlation (i.e. they are not independent factors), and (2) ratings of pleasingness were higher when the computer mice were less novel/ more typical. We conclude that the MAYA principle may provide a better explanation of product aesthetics in some product domains than in others.
Study Two: Fountain Pen Framing Study
Participants will complete an experiment consisting of three blocks of trials. Each block will consist of eight trials featuring eight different fountain pens, varying in size and shape.
In the first block, they will use a slider to rate how typical each pen looks from 1-7. Half of the participants will be collection participants and will rate how typical the pen looks for a pen collection. The other half will be daily use participants and will rate how typical the pen looks for daily use.
Instruction on Typicality Rating
Rating Scale
In the second block, they will use a slider to rate how novel each pen looks from 1-7. Collection participants will rate how novel the pen looks for a pen collection, and daily use participants will rate how novel the pen looks for daily use.
Instruction on Novelty Rating
In the third block, they will use a slider to rate how much they like looking at each pen from 1-7. Collection participants will rate how much they like looking at the pen and will be reminded that it is intended for a pen collection. Daily use participants will rate how much they like looking at the pen and will be reminded that it is intended for daily use.
Instruction on Preference Rating
Our question is whether the collection vs. daily use condition will influence the relationship between liking ratings and typicality ratings and between liking ratings and novelty ratings. Pilot testing suggests that participants in the collection condition will show a stronger correlation between liking ratings and typicality ratings compared to participants in the daily use condition.
The Collection Priming
The Personal Use Priming
In both the collection and daily use conditions, for each participant, we computed the Pearson’s correlation between that participant’s typicality ratings and their liking ratings. We also conducted a between-subjects T-test to compare the correlation values between the two groups.
Study One: Computer Mouse Design
What causes us to like how a designed object looks? Psychologists interested in this question have often considered how two cognitive variables — typicality and novelty — drive affective responses to designed products. This has led to the formulation of the ‘Most Advanced Yet Acceptable’ (MAYA) principle, which is a two-factor theory that proposes that, in many situations, individuals prefer a product to be novel (i.e. unlike designs that we have seen before), but only if it is still fairly typical (i.e. similar enough to our prototype for the design category to still be recognizable). The MAYA principle has received mixed support, and so in the present research we set out to test it using a new class of objects — computer mice. Participants viewed computer mice, and rated them in terms of their novelty, typicality, and visual pleasingness. We found that (1) ratings of novelty and typicality showed an almost perfect negative correlation (i.e. they are not independent factors), and (2) ratings of pleasingness were higher when the computer mice were less novel/ more typical. We conclude that the MAYA principle may provide a better explanation of product aesthetics in some product domains than in others.
Study Two: Fountain Pen Framing Study
Participants will complete an experiment consisting of three blocks of trials. Each block will consist of eight trials featuring eight different fountain pens, varying in size and shape.
In the first block, they will use a slider to rate how typical each pen looks from 1-7. Half of the participants will be collection participants and will rate how typical the pen looks for a pen collection. The other half will be daily use participants and will rate how typical the pen looks for daily use.
Instruction on Typicality Rating
Rating Scale
In the second block, they will use a slider to rate how novel each pen looks from 1-7. Collection participants will rate how novel the pen looks for a pen collection, and daily use participants will rate how novel the pen looks for daily use.
Instruction on Novelty Rating
In the third block, they will use a slider to rate how much they like looking at each pen from 1-7. Collection participants will rate how much they like looking at the pen and will be reminded that it is intended for a pen collection. Daily use participants will rate how much they like looking at the pen and will be reminded that it is intended for daily use.
Instruction on Preference Rating
Our question is whether the collection vs. daily use condition will influence the relationship between liking ratings and typicality ratings and between liking ratings and novelty ratings. Pilot testing suggests that participants in the collection condition will show a stronger correlation between liking ratings and typicality ratings compared to participants in the daily use condition.
The Collection Priming
The Personal Use Priming
In both the collection and daily use conditions, for each participant, we computed the Pearson’s correlation between that participant’s typicality ratings and their liking ratings. We also conducted a between-subjects T-test to compare the correlation values between the two groups.