In a growingly diverse world, little is known about the role of ethnicity and culture in art preferences. A multi-phase cross-cultural project with design students, non-design students and hospital patients has been initiated with Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, National University of Singapore and University of Texas San Antonio. The first phase of this study developed a cultural survey instrument that includes abstract, representational and nature images from Texas, Mexico, and Singapore that are representative of the unique cultural contexts, in addition to images that strictly adhere to the evidence-based guidelines, and tested it on design and non-design students. Students from the different universities were asked to rate images from the survey on an emotion scale "how does this picture make you feel" and a selection scale "would you put this picture in your room". At the end of the survey students were asked to re-rate the images again as if they were hospitalized and lying in a patient room. Data is currently being analyzed.

This project is currently underway.