Preferences for Ancient and Modern Art Museums: Visitor Experiences and Personality Characteristics

This research has two main purposes. The first is to replicate and possibly to extend the results obtained in a previous study, where the authors found that visitors to the ancient art museum conducted their visit with the primary aim of acquiring understanding and knowledge, while modern art museum visitors conducted their visit with an approach that was primarily emotional and pleasure-seeking. The second purpose relates to studies showing that people who prefer abstract art present higher levels on personality traits like Openness to Experience and Sensation Seeking, compared to people who prefer realistic art. This study investigates these two personality traits for people who favor visiting museums of ancient rather than modem art. Results confirmed previous findings that emotional aspects related to the visit were relevant for modern art museum visitors, while a more cognitive approach based on learning characterized ancient art museum visitors. Concerning personality traits, no difference was found between the two museum groups on the Openness to Experience dimension; differences were found on the Sensation Seeking trait; modern art museum visitors attained higher scores as compared to ancient art museum visitors.