Comparison of ambiguity and aesthetic impressions in haiku poetry between experts and novices

Haiku, the world's shortest form of poetry, has usually been deemed ambiguous owing to its length. However, studies have shown that ambiguity lowers the aesthetic evaluation of a haiku, which contradicts the belief that ambiguity is a characteristic of both the haiku and art in general. One reason for this contradiction may be the interaction with the readers’ attributes, in particular, their expertise—a theme considered important in the field of aesthetic psychology. Therefore, in this study, we had 20 experts and 20 novices evaluate 20 low- and 20 high-ambiguity haikus, which another group of novices had evaluated and distinguished in the pilot study. The results revealed that the novices exhibited a lower liking for high-ambiguity haikus, whereas the experts demonstrated the same degree of liking for both high- and low-ambiguity haikus. Additionally, the experts had lower perceived ambiguity for high-ambiguity haikus than novices. This suggests a higher degree of liking for ambiguous haikus than novices because they were able to process them more fluently based on their knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, interest mediated the relationship between perceived ambiguity and liking among experts only. In sum, the experts appreciated ambiguous haikus in different ways compared to the novices. The results have implications for the psychology and cognitive science of aesthetics and art, where ambiguity is important, as well as for expertise in school education, where haiku is part of the curriculum.