According to prominent philosophical views, appreciating beauty involves psychological distancing, where one does not consider the beautiful object in light of practical interests, and beauty leads to transformative and self-transcendent affective experiences. In this study (N = 187), conducted in the naturalistic environment of a museum, we explored these ideas. Half the participants were instructed to rate the beauty of pottery objects created by a renowned artist, while the other half engaged in a control task that did not involve evaluating beauty. Based on Construal Level Theory, we used the Behavior Identification Form to explore whether aesthetic experiences encourage abstract thinking, and in turn, psychological distance. We also predicted that beauty appreciation would lead to greater transformative and self-transcendent emotions. Indeed, appreciating the beauty of artworks led participants to think in a more abstract way, especially those who practice an art hobby themselves, as well as to transformative, and self-transcendent emotions.

中文翻译：

---

被美所改变：审美鉴赏在美术馆中增加抽象思维和自我超越的情感

根据著名的哲学观点，欣赏美涉及心理距离，在这种情况下，人们不会根据实际利益来考虑美丽的对象，而美会导致变革性和自我超越的情感体验。在这项研究 （N = 187） 中，在博物馆的自然环境中进行，我们探讨了这些想法。一半的参与者被指示对著名艺术家创作的陶器的美感进行评分，而另一半则参与了一项不涉及评估美感的控制任务。基于解释水平理论，我们使用行为识别表来探索审美体验是否鼓励抽象思维，进而促进心理距离。我们还预测，美的欣赏会带来更大的变革性和自我超越的情感。事实上，欣赏艺术品的美感使参与者以更抽象的方式思考，尤其是那些自己从事艺术爱好的人，以及变革性的、自我超越的情感。