The Effects of Emotional and Cognitive Changes on Aesthetic Evaluation of Haiku Poetry:

―Continuous Response Data with a Joystick―

Abstract

Previously, we found that positive emotions explain beauty of haiku (Hitsuwari & Nomura, 2021), and that cognitive ambiguity reduces aesthetic evaluations of haiku (Hitsuwari & Nomura, in revision). Considering the importance of negative emotions (Menninghaus et al., 2017) and cognitive ambiguity (Muth et al., 2015) in art, the next step should be a more careful examination of the relationship between emotional and cognitive change that occur during haiku appreciation. In this study, we examined the effects of emotional and cognitive changes on the aesthetic evaluation of haiku by evaluating each part of haiku step by step and tracking the continuous emotional response using a joystick. As a result of a laboratory experiment with 113 students, we found that an increase in positive emotions and the resolution of emotional and cognitive ambiguity explain the beauty of haiku, indicating the importance of the process of emotional and cognitive change in haiku appreciation.