ABSTRACT
Humans evolved to assess the natural environment quickly, to find faces in it and to immediately respond to different shapes. Pointed forms such as barbs, thorns, quills, sharp teeth were ever-present threats in our evolutionary past, so it was advantageous to sense them fast, and prepare to flee if necessary. Psychologically, part of our brain still feels a lion could be at the gate, even as we sit in the living room of a suburban tract house. This chapter reviews our implicit response to shapes including curving versus sharp ones and symmetrical versus asymmetrical form. Underscoring a book theme, it explains how we remain designed for past environments, quoting the UK psychologist, Nigel Nicholson, who notes: “You can take the person out of the Stone Age…but you can’t take the Stone Age out of the person.”
