The objective of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the mechanisms, elicitors and functions of aesthetic liking and aesthetic preferences: Who appreciates what and why and under which conditions? And what functions do aesthetic practices and preferences serve for individuals, social groups and societies? The research focuses primarily on the foundations of aesthetic evaluation, perception and experience. Key topics include: * the nature of “aesthetic pleasure” and the different types of aesthetic appeal and “aesthetic emotions”; * the cognitive and affective mechanisms involved in aesthetic perception and their neural, physiological and behavioral correlates; * the motivational implications and consequences of aesthetic liking (tendencies to seek prolonged and/or repeated exposure to aesthetically appealing objects, pictures, songs, texts; decision-making grounded in aesthetic judgments, such as purchasing aesthetically appealing objects, etc.); * the ontogenesis of aesthetic preferences, their change over lifetime, and their historical, cultural and individual variability; * the range of historically and culturally varying concepts used to designate and discuss aesthetic judgments, such as “beautiful,” “ugly,” “sublime,” “interesting,” “fascinating,” “poetic,” “uncanny,” “marvelous,” “awesome,” “moving,” “touching,” “shattering,” “tragic,” “suspenseful,” etc.; * the functions of aesthetic practices and judgments for the development of cognitive and affective capabilities as well as for the subjective well-being, self-conception, and “self-fashioning” of individuals, for social communication, and for economic purposes.