What does this research mean for the field?

Audience evaluations of AI-generated cultural heritage imagery rely heavily on a holistic perception of design quality rather than distinct, independent assessments of visual quality, technical novelty, and symbol salience. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how visual information quality, AI technical novelty, and symbol salience affect perceived aesthetics, authenticity, cultural identity, and acceptance of AI-generated intangible cultural heritage imagery.

September 2, 2026Scientific ReportsOpen Access

From aesthetics to authenticity: a stimulus–organism–response model of audience responses to AI-generated intangible cultural heritage design

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To examine how visual information quality, AI technical novelty, and symbol salience affect perceived aesthetics, authenticity, cultural identity, and acceptance of AI-generated intangible cultural heritage imagery.
Conducted a randomized between-subjects online experiment with 330 participants evaluating AI-generated Wuxi clay figurine designs.
Tested structural relationships across cognitive and behavioral constructs using a Stimulus-Organism-Response theoretical framework.
Assessed discriminant validity with heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) analysis and evaluated an alternative second-order perceived design quality model.
Visual information quality, technical novelty, and symbol salience were positively associated with perceived aesthetics, while aesthetics and symbol salience positively predicted perceived authenticity.
HTMT analysis revealed limited discriminant validity across visual quality, technical novelty, symbol salience, and perceived aesthetics, indicating substantial conceptual overlap.
A second-order model uniting the four visual perceptions into an overall design quality factor demonstrated acceptable fit, wherein perceived authenticity no longer showed an independent association with acceptance intention.

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Implication

Randomized online experiment reveals that visual quality shapes authenticity evaluations in online viewers, highlighting a holistic evaluative response to AI-generated cultural heritage imagery.

Cite This Study

Feng et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a97e237c562ede874ec639a https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-69396-4

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Implication

Randomized online experiment reveals that visual quality shapes authenticity evaluations in online viewers, highlighting a holistic evaluative response to AI-generated cultural heritage imagery.

From aesthetics to authenticity: a stimulus–organism–response model of audience responses to AI-generated intangible cultural heritage design

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

From aesthetics to authenticity: a stimulus–organism–response model of audience responses to AI-generated intangible cultural heritage design

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

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