Western European and East Asian cultures show marked differences in aesthetic appreciation of the visual arts. East Asian aesthetics are often associated with a holistic focus on balance and harmony, in contrast to Western aesthetics, which often focus on the expression of the individual. In this study, we examined whether cultural differences also exist in relation to the aesthetics of dance. Japanese and British participants completed an online survey in which they evaluated synchronous and asynchronous dance video clips on eight semantic differential scales. We observed that the aesthetics of group dance depend on cultural background. Specifically, British participants preferred asynchronous over synchronous dance whereas Japanese participants equally liked synchronous and asynchronous dance movement. For both cultures, preferences were based on distinct semantic associations with movement synchrony. We argue that cultural differences in aesthetic perception of group dance relate to the culturally specific social signals conveyed by unison movement.

西欧和东亚文化在视觉艺术的审美欣赏上显示出明显的差异。与西方美学相反，东亚美学通常将整体关注平衡与和谐联系在一起，而西方美学则通常将重点放在个人的表达上。在这项研究中，我们研究了与舞蹈美学相关的文化差异是否也存在。日本和英国的参与者完成了一项在线调查，他们在八个语义差异量表上评估了同步和异步舞蹈视频剪辑。我们观察到集体舞的美学取决于文化背景。具体而言，英国参与者更喜欢异步舞蹈而不是同步舞蹈，而日本参与者同样喜欢同步和异步舞蹈运动。对于两种文化，偏好基于具有运动同步性的独特语义关联。我们认为，集体舞审美观中的文化差异与统一运动传达的特定文化的社会信号有关。