Cultural Frame-Dependent Differences in Artistic Appraisals Between White and Black Americans

The effects of artist's cultural identity in art appreciation are crucial in understanding discussions of cultural representation and remain understudied. In this study, we investigated the framing effect of cultural origin on artistic appraisals in 410 participants from the United States. All participants were recruited online and assigned to one of three groups which varied by artists' perceived culture of origin (American, European, or African). All stimuli consisted of equal numbers of abstract and representational artworks by African artists. The artists' name was manipulated and used as a proxy for culture of origin. For the African condition artists' original names were presented, while the other two conditions were presented with pseudonyms. Participants evaluated the artworks on the dimensions of understanding, meaning, interest, liking, and moving. Whether the participants would appraise art created by African artists higher than those created by artists perceived to be American or European, and its dependence on participant's race was investigated. Results revealed a significant effect for participants' race only in the American and African frames. Black participants reported higher levels of understanding, meaning, and liking when viewing abstract art in both American and African frames. In addition, they had higher interest only in the African frame, and higher moving only in the American frame. Black participants also had higher meaning, liking, and moving when viewing representational art only in the American frame. Our findings demonstrate that the racial or cultural identity of the artist can alter appraisals depending on the viewer's identity.