... the Golden Section and Normative Aesthetics: Why Do Individuals Differ so Much in Their Aesthetic Preferences for Rectangles? I. C. McManus, Richard Cook, and Amy HuntUniversity College LondonInterest ... Jacobsen, 2004). Itis therefore possible to discuss tastes and argue about them be-cause people genuinely differ in their tastes, in their aesthetic preferences, and, hence, in what they regard as ... participants have aesthetic preferences for some random dot patterns over others; McManus& Kitson, 1995). The great art critic and historian, HeinrichWo¨lfflin, in his doctoral thesis of 1886...