Art and authenticity: The importance of originals in judgments of value.
Newman and Bloom asked why original artworks are valued more than identical duplicates, and tested two mechanisms: the object as a unique creative act, which they call performance, and the degree of physical contact with the original artist, which they call contagion. Across five experiments, participants read hypothetical scenarios in which an original object was duplicated, with the type of object and the circumstances of the original's and the duplicate's creation varied. The results support performance and contagion as key factors in the value of originals, and fit the view that the gap between originals and perfect duplicates comes from people's lay theories about art, not from associations with particular kinds of art or cases of forgery.
Newman and Bloom asked why original artworks are valued more than identical duplicates, and tested two mechanisms: the object as a unique creative act, which they call performance, and the degree of physical contact with the original artist, which they call contagion. Across five experiments, participants read hypothetical scenarios in which an original object was duplicated, with the type of object and the circumstances of the original's and the duplicate's creation varied. The results support performance and contagion as key factors in the value of originals, and fit the view that the gap between originals and perfect duplicates comes from people's lay theories about art, not from associations with particular kinds of art or cases of forgery.
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Newman, G. E., & Bloom, P. (2012). Art and authenticity: The importance of originals in judgments of value. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(3), 558-569.