Contrapposto Pose Influences Perceptions of Attractiveness, Masculinity, and Dynamicity of Male Statues from Antiquity

A contrapposto pose, as exemplified by Michelangelo’s David statue, is an asymmetric body posture known for its beauty and prevalence throughout the world of art. Past research has revealed that contrapposto poses are perceived to be more attractive than an upright, erect pose. Yet, this empirical work has only considered perceptions of the female body. There has been no systematic, empirical examination of the effect of male contrapposto poses on human perception. Therefore, across three studies differing in experimental methodology (2D vs. 3D stimuli), we investigated the effect of contrapposto poses in male statues on perceived attractiveness, masculinity, dominance, dynamicity, and naturalness. Four classical statues known for their contrapposto postures were manipulated in their degree of contrapposto, creating five stimuli in total for each statue (two decreased and 2 exaggerated from the original). In two studies, participants observed and rated 2D renderings of the statues. In another study, participants rated 3D statues while being immersed in a virtual reality environment. Results showed that 2D images varying in degrees of contrapposto poses did not affect the perception of the male statues. However, in the VR study, significant differences in ratings of attractiveness, dynamicity and masculinity were revealed. Specifically, an erect posture (decreased contrapposto) compared to exaggerated contrapposto poses increased the perception of attractiveness and masculinity but decreased the perception of dynamicity. Collectively, the results provide the first experimental evidence that variations in contrapposto poses in male models affect people’s perception across a range of values, including on their attractiveness. We also provide evidence demonstrating the enhanced sensitivity of art perception within a VR environment.