“Curating” the JCP special issue on aesthetics in consumer psychology: An introduction to the aesthetics issue

This is the age of Aesthetics, Beauty, and Design. Newly available product innovations from the Apple i-phone to the latest Dyson vacuum reflect aesthetic values. Indeed, Apple's success has been attributed to the infusion of aesthetics into product design. This model of product creation has resulted in Apple becoming one of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States. Accentuating this point, Daniel Pink (2005) in his recent book, A Whole New Mind, designated the coming decade the Conceptual Age, the age of creativity and empathy. This moniker signifies the increasing importance of aesthetics, design, and conceptual values for organizations, individuals, and products. Pink advocates the importance of “soft skills” and suggests that what our economy needs to progress and prosper is a generation of creators and empathizers. In the same spirit, Thomas Friedman (2005) in his best-selling book, The World is Flat, discusses how the success of the Western world hinges on creativity, aesthetics, and design in the service of maintaining a competitive edge essential for individuals and companies to stay ahead of cost-based competition from the East. There is no doubt when we look at the world around us, the world as it is today, that aesthetics is everywhere and impacts everything. Aesthetics has always been of importance; the appreciation of beauty, in whatever manner beauty may be defined, is a human value. An interest in the psychology of aesthetics has been reflected in the consumer literature for some time; however, in recent years there has been a burgeoning call for a richer understanding of how, when, where, and why aesthetics operates (Hoegg & Alba, 2008; Holbrook, 1980). Hence, this special issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology focuses on Aesthetics. In our role as the Aesthetics Special Issue editors, we were influenced by a recent article in the New York Times (Williams, 2009). This article observes that the word “curate,” which was “lofty and once rarely spoken outside exhibition corridors or British parishes, has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded, who seem to paste it onto any activity that involves culling and selecting.” Borrowing this term, we, the curators of this Aesthetics Special Issue, provide in this introductory article an overview of the special issue. We present a summary of the state of the aesthetics literature in consumer psychology, introduce the articles that constitute this Aesthetics Special Issue, and raise a number of research questions that are viable areas for future investigation in the domain of aesthetics.