Cross-cultural empirical aesthetics seeks to determine whether the psychological processes underlying aesthetic preference are universal. Here we provide a critical review of the field's origin, development, and current state. Our goal is to evaluate the evidence and separate what is actually known from what is only assumed. We conclude that the evidence shows that people from different cultures base their aesthetic preference on a common set of formal features, including symmetry, complexity, proportion, contour, brightness, and contrast. The reason for this commonality is that aesthetic preference emerges from basic perceptual and valuation processes that are common to all humans, and to many other animals.