ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the psychology of preference, reviewing the earlier literature on design and marketing preferences and then moving on to the role of personality in design and advertising preferences. It focuses on the relationship of aesthetic preferences to the personality of the creator and observer. Aesthetic aspects shape a product's appearance, and these aspects can include materials, proportion, colour, ornamentation, shape, size and reflectivity. The studies on personality and graphic preferences were conducted at a similar period to the studies on personality and graphic creations, starting in the late 1940s and coming to a halt in the 1980s. There are nine studies that examine the link between personality and graphic preferences, and in each case, short details of the main findings are related to studies on the personalities associated with particular types of graphic expression. The studies are: Welsh; Honkavaara; Knapp and Green; Barron; Knapp and Wolff; Knapp; Jacoby; Birren; Eysenck.
