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Abstract

Measuring intraindividual variability of beauty judgment is key to understanding the repeatability of beauty ratings within and between individuals. To calculate intraindividual variability using repeated measures, the repeated measures must be independent. Sequential dependencies, which occur when previous ratings influence following ones, threaten to violate such independence. We assessed whether such contrast and assimilation effects influence the variability of beauty judgment. We asked participants to rate (1-7) the beauty of 75 images in an arbitrary initial order. Then, participants rated all images two additional times. In the unscrambled condition, participants rated the 75 images in the initial order again. In the scrambled condition, participants rated the 75 images in a different randomized order. The order of the conditions was counterbalanced. We calculated the distribution of the differences between the initial beauty ratings and ratings in the unscrambled and the scrambled condition. We found that the standard deviations of the two distributions, 0.87 and 0.90 respectively, were not significantly different. To assess which sequence effects (contrast and/or assimilation) influence the variability in beauty ratings, we used a mixed-effect linear model to calculate the extent to which the preceding image’s original and recent ratings predicted beauty ratings. We found that neither the previous image’s original rating, indicative of a contrast effect, nor its recent rating, indicative of an assimilation effect, influence the current image’s beauty rating. Overall, we conclude that sequential dependency does not affect intraindividual variability of beauty judgment.