Exploring Aesthetic Chill Parameters and their Associations with Demographic, Lifestyle and Personality Variables

Abstract

This dissertation reviews the literature on individual differences associated with the experience of Aesthetic Chills, and reports a large questionnaire study, completed by 46 international students. Ordinal logistic regressions confirmed previously reported significant and positive relations between Openness and the frequency of Aesthetic Chills in poetry and music (McCrae 2007; Kunkel, Pramstaller, Grant, & von Georgi, 2008). Prior reported correlations between the frequency of Aesthetic Chills in music with Agreeableness and Extraversion (Panksepp & Bernatzky, 2002; Rickard, 2004) were not supported by the current data. The study further improved current knowledge by recognizing significant positive correlations between Awe and intensity of Chills caused by nature and caused by visual arts. Ordinal logistic regressions showed that education was less relevant than hours spent per week in terms of a relationship to frequency of Aesthetic Chills; only hours per week was significantly positively related to frequency of Aesthetic Chills in literature, music and visual arts. Each type of Aesthetic Chill was found to be associated with a distinct pattern of correlations with demographic and personality variable. Recommendations for future research were made based upon these findings combined with currently outstanding questions in the literature.