How portraits turned their eyes upon us: Visual preferences and demographic change in cultural evolution

It has often been suggested that innate features of the human mind could make some cultural forms more successful than others. This paper presents a case study consistent with this “cognitive attraction” hypothesis. Numerous studies show that direct eye-gaze catches the attention of adults and newborns. Adults find it more attractive. We explore one possible cultural consequence of this cognitive appeal. Among XVIth century European portraits, direct-gaze paintings are more likely to be featured in today's art books. In Renaissance Europe, the proportion of paintings that stare at the viewer grows gradually, strongly, and remains prevalent for centuries. A demographic analysis of this shift shows that it was due to the arrival of new generations of painters. Those artists show a preference for direct-gaze portraits as soon as they start painting, suggesting that they acquired the new style in the years of their apprenticeship. The preferences of those painters and of contemporary art critics seem consistent with the innate attentional bias that favours direct-gaze faces. The structure of the “Renaissance gaze shift” bears evidence for the importance of demographic turn-over in cultural change.