Conclusion
After conducting my experiment, I discovered the hypothesis that "I believe that the closer an object or face approximates phi, the more aesthetically pleasing it will be because of the presence of phi in human proportions, the natural world, and art" was correct. I surveyed 60 students, over 25% of the population at City School. This is a large enough portion of students to reflect the whole population. More students preferred the painting, rectangle, and set of flowers that approximated the Golden Ratio than otherwise. The majority of students, 41.7% preferred the Golden Rectangle over the square and elongated rectangle. 61.7% of students preferred flowers with Fibonacci numbers of petals to flowers whose petals don't show Fibonacci. 53.4% preferred The Last Supper, painted with the Divine Proportion in mind, to the painting Nighthawks. This evidence shows that, whether consciously or unconsciously, the Golden Ratio affects our perception of aesthetics. Other data regarding facial beauty showed lopsided results. 70% of people preferred the male face that approximated phi, while 66.7% of people preferred the female face that didn't approximate phi. These results I have chosen to exclude from my analysis, because of personal preferences, including hair, eye color, eye shape, facial hair, and facial recognition, that could have effected the results. Also, many people were uncomfortable choosing which face was more attractive in front of others. If I were to perform a second trial, I would have answers be anonymous, and test equal numbers of each grade and gender. This study has also made me interested in what other factors effect affect attraction, and what causes people to be attracted to one another. I am also interested in why the Golden Ratio is so abundant in different elements of life.