Crowded Minds, Ordered Designs: How Social Crowding Shapes Aesthetic Preferences

Social crowding is a common daily experience that shapes visual preferences. Prior research has focused on isolated, low‐level processing visual features (e.g., shape and boundary), with less attention to integrated, high‐level processing visual aesthetics. This research examines how social crowding influences visual aesthetic preferences across three preregistered studies using real‐life dining scenarios, images, and videos, and employing stimuli including food plating, light bulbs, and promotional posters. A field study (Study 1a) and an online study (Study 1b) show that social crowding increases preferences for classical rather than expressive aesthetics. Study 2 demonstrates that the need for order explains this effect. Study 3 shows that group type further moderates this pattern: social crowding enhances classical aesthetic preferences when people are surrounded by out‐groups but increases expressive aesthetic preferences when they are surrounded by in‐groups. These findings provide meaningful implications for visual communication strategies.