A few words on Horror Vacui

Horror vacui – a tendency to favor filling blank spaces with objects and elements over leaving spaces blank or empty.

Recent research into how horror vacui is perceived suggests a general inverse relationship between horror vacui and value perception—that is, as horror vacui increases, perceived value decreases.

For example, in a survey of more than 100 clothing stores that display merchandise in shop windows, the degree to which the shop windows were filled with mannequins, clothes, price tags, and signage was inversely related to the average price of the clothing and brand prestige of the store.

In general, to promote associations of high value, we should favor minimalism for affluent and well-educated audiences and horror vacui for poorer and less-educated audiences, and vice versa.