Looking Alike Does Not Mean Judging Alike: Dissociation Between Aesthetic Consistency and Gaze Consistency

Whether “looking alike” implies “judging alike” remains an open question. The present study examined the relationship between gaze consistency and aesthetic consistency during abstract art viewing. Participants viewed abstract images and provided emotionaland aesthetic ratings across multiple dimensions. Gaze consistency was measured using complementary metrics of spatial overlap, sequential similarity, and fixation dispersion. We tested whether emotional appraisal modulates both aesthetic and gaze consistency, whether the two consistencies are associated, and whether component-level consistencies predict overall aesthetic consistency. Results showed that emotional appraisal significantly predicted aesthetic consistency, whereas gaze consistency was primarily associated with low-level structural properties of the stimuli. Critically, gaze consistency and aesthetic consistency did not reliably predict one another, revealing a dissociation between them. Overall aesthetic consistency was best explained by component-level consistencies, especially color consistency. These findings refine theories of aesthetic judgment and provide guidance for perceptual–emotional system design in human–computer interaction.