The ‘Golden Section’: An Artifact of Stimulus Range and Demand Characteristics

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Abstract
Rectangles having different ratios between the lengths of their sides were presented in three different ranges: with the golden section either (a) the next to most elongated rectangle, (b) the middle rectangle, or (c) the next to shortest rectangle. Each of 90 subjects had to pick the rectangles they liked best from all three ranges. This basic procedure was run under three different conditions: (a) subjects did not know the stimuli before, (b) subjects knew them from a foregoing psychophysical experiment, (c) the same, with reinforcing the golden section. The rectangles at both extremes of each range were chosen first most often under the first two conditions, whereas the golden section was chosen most often under the last condition. The conclusion is that preference for the golden section is an artifact of the stimulus range and of the demand characteristics of the experimental procedure rather than of any intrinsic aesthetic quality.