Attractive Things Do Work Better: A Meta-Analysis on Visual Aesthetics and User Performance
Schlamann first author. A preregistered meta-analysis of 31 studies, 234 effect sizes and 18,794 participants, admitting only studies whose aesthetic manipulation demonstrably worked, found a small to medium effect of aesthetics on performance, about 0.29 in standard-deviation units, against about 0.12 in the 2019 pooled estimate. No publication bias was detected, heterogeneity stayed largely unexplained, and the authors grade the quality of the pooled studies as mediocre.
Schlamann first author. A preregistered meta-analysis of 31 studies, 234 effect sizes and 18,794 participants, admitting only studies whose aesthetic manipulation demonstrably worked, found a small to medium effect of aesthetics on performance, about 0.29 in standard-deviation units, against about 0.12 in the 2019 pooled estimate. No publication bias was detected, heterogeneity stayed largely unexplained, and the authors grade the quality of the pooled studies as mediocre.
Written from the full text read 2026-10-18.
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International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, advance article, 1-43. doi:10.1080/10447318.2026.2664081.