The prevalence and predictors of experiences of beauty in 22 countries: An international assessment of aesthetic appreciation in the Global Flourishing Study

The prevalence and predictors of experiences of beauty in 22 countries: An international assessment of aesthetic appreciation in the Global Flourishing Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The prevalence and predictors of experiences of beauty in 22 countries: An international assessment of aesthetic appreciation in the Global Flourishing Study Tim Lomas, R. Noah Padgett, James O. Pawelski, Christos A. Makridis, and 7 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7697881/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Applied Research in Quality of Life → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Experiences of beauty (EoB) are an important aspect of wellbeing for many people. However, there is relatively little understanding of factors associated with such experiences, especially cross-nationally. In that respect, we present the most comprehensive international study to date on this topic, assessing an item in the Global Flourishing Study (GFS): “Do you regularly experience things that you consider beautiful? This may include physical beauty or abstract beauty like that found in music, art, or nature.” The GFS is a five-year (minimum) panel study investigating the predictors of flourishing across 22 countries, with this item featuring in the wave 1 “mid-year” survey, comprising 131,487 participants. Besides measuring flourishing-related outcomes, the GFS intake questionnaire assessed 15 flourishing-related factors: four demographic, eight childhood, and three that pertain to both categories. Overall, the most strongly related demographic factor – indicated by the degree of variation among the categories in their association with EoB – was education (with the highest EoB among those with 16 + years of education, which held true in every place except the US), while the most strongly related childhood factor was religious service attendance (especially weekly). Even more notably though, some childhood factors associated with EoB were those normally construed as negative, particularly abuse; while that does not mean such adversity should be appreciated as having an “upside,” it points to EoB having complex roots, one of which may be forms of suffering that potentially make people more open and sensitive to the world. One must also emphasize the substantial cross-cultural variation, with most patterns not universal and inevitable, but subject to local socio-cultural dynamics. More research is needed to provide deeper understanding of this important aspect of human flourishing, for which this paper serves as a generative foundation and impetus. beauty aesthetics art flourishing global Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. Tyler J. VanderWeele reports partial ownership and licensing fees from Gloo, Inc. The remaining authors have no competing interests to declare. Supplementary Files GFSexperiencesofbeautyonlinesupplement.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Applied Research in Quality of Life → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7697881","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":526791557,"identity":"1cc4fd8b-6182-4f16-9264-2134aba93b85","order_by":0,"name":"Tim Lomas","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdjBpk8DAwMPADBUzYGBgw62DB6IsjXQth0nQYs/MfHTDjz/n8+Rn9x5gLqi5l9g/+/AGhg9lh/HYwpZ2s7ftdrHBnXMJzDOOFSfOOJdWwDjjHD4tPGY3eBtuJ26QyDFg5mFLMGY4w2PAzNuGX8vNP3/OJc6fAdLyL8FYHqTlLwEtt3nYDiQ23MgBGZ4gZwDSwohPy2G2tNuybcmJG+6cMTjM25cgZ3iGreBgz7l0nFrY25uP3Xzzxy5x/uwew8c83xJ45M4wb3zwo8wapxYEkGBgOABjH8CtDE3LKBgFo2AUjAKsAAC9j1OVA0qCVgAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Harvard University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tim","middleName":"","lastName":"Lomas","suffix":""},{"id":526791558,"identity":"6602afa4-b7f9-4117-8ec8-460ea1b83296","order_by":1,"name":"R. 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Tyler J. VanderWeele reports partial ownership and licensing fees from Gloo, Inc. 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However, there is relatively little understanding of factors associated with such experiences, especially cross-nationally. In that respect, we present the most comprehensive international study to date on this topic, assessing an item in the Global Flourishing Study (GFS): \u0026ldquo;Do you regularly experience things that you consider beautiful? This may include physical beauty or abstract beauty like that found in music, art, or nature.\u0026rdquo; The GFS is a five-year (minimum) panel study investigating the predictors of flourishing across 22 countries, with this item featuring in the wave 1 \u0026ldquo;mid-year\u0026rdquo; survey, comprising 131,487 participants. Besides measuring flourishing-related outcomes, the GFS intake questionnaire assessed 15 flourishing-related factors: four demographic, eight childhood, and three that pertain to both categories. 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