| dc.description.abstract | In the last 20 years, a large number of studies have investi gated judgments of the identity of various objects (e.g., per sons, material objects, institutions) over time. One influential
strand of research has found that identity judgments are
shaped by normative considerations. People tend to believe
that moral improvement is more compatible with the conti nuity of identity of a person than moral deterioration, suggest ing that persons are taken to be essentially morally good. This
asymmetry is often referred to as the “Phineas Gage effect”.
However, normativity extends beyond morality. In particular, it
is unknown whether changes in aesthetic value have a similar
impact on identity judgments. We investigate whether works
of art would be analogously seen as essentially aesthetically
valuable. We ran four studies (N = 1264) to explore whether
aesthetic considerations have a similar influence on judgments
of the identity of artworks. We presented the participants with
stories describing either a painting or a musical work which
undergoes changes and becomes either more or less aesthe tically valuable. Overall, we found only mixed evidence for the
Phineas Gage effect in relation to the aesthetic value of art works. Other factors, such as moral value, seem to have
a bigger impact on judgments of persistence. | vi |
