Your favorite rectangle
Among these rectangles, click on the one you find most harmonious, without thinking about it.
The experiment starts as soon as the page has loaded (JavaScript is required).
Try the experiment: your result will appear here, next to what most people do.
What just happened (read it after the experiment)
What most people do: Preferences are very divided: the golden rectangle isn’t chosen much more often than its neighbors.
The golden ratio, about 1.618, has an immense reputation: it is supposedly found in the Parthenon, the Mona Lisa, the nautilus shell, and our tastes.
In 1876, Gustav Fechner believed he had shown that people prefer the golden rectangle. Later, better-controlled studies found widely scattered preferences, which depend mostly on the order of presentation and on the context.
The golden ratio is a fascinating mathematical object; its aesthetic magic is largely a legend.
More experiments
Sources
- Gustav Fechner, Vorschule der Aesthetik, 1876.
- Chris McManus, “The aesthetics of simple figures,” British Journal of Psychology, 1980.