Is Golden Ratio's association with perceived beauty a myth? Many people advocate using the Golden Ratio in design (e.g. logo design). 

Is the Golden Ratio's purported aesthetic appeal supported by scientific evidence?
I found a little discussion of the issue in Russell (2000), where he summarises some of the views of the scientific literature:


  Recent reviews of the empirical literature bearing on the claim of
  special aesthetic significance for this ratio in the context of the
  perception of simple figures include Green (1995), Hoge (1995), and
  contributors to a dedicated edition of Empirical Studies of the Arts
  (Hoge 1997). Some investigators doubt that the golden section has any
  aesthetic significance, even suggesting that research on it be
  abandoned (Boselie 1992, 1997; Davis and Jahnke 1991). Others prefer
  to leave the question open, especially in view of the methodological
  difficulties associated with testing the significance of the golden
  section (Green 1995).


Green (1995) argues that "[t]here seems to be, in fact, real psychological effects associated with the golden section, but they are relatively sensitive to careless methodological practices."

Russel (2000) explored the height to width ratio of a large database of famous paintings and did not find any particular support for a preference for the golden-section. Russel suggests that in the real world functional factors tend to constrain ratios.

McManus (1980, PDF) provides an interesting discussion of the methodological issues and the findings of research that has empirically studied aesthetic judgements of simple figures. McManus advocates the use of the paired-comparison method whereby participants make aesthetic judgements on which of series of pairs of objects is more aesthetically attractive. McManus observed that there were substantial individual differences in such preferences. McManus felt that existing empirical research was unable to adequately differentiate preference for the golden-section versus other similar ratios such as 1.5, 1.6 or 1.75.

References


Boselie F, 1992. "The golden section has no special aesthetic attractivity!" Empirical Studies of the Arts 10 1-18.
Boselie F, 1997 "The golden section and the shape of objects" Empirical Studies of the Arts 15 131-141.
Davis S T, Jahnke J C, 1991 "Unity and the golden section: Rules for aesthetic choice?" American Journal of Psychology 104 257 ^ 277
Green C D, 1995 "All that glitters: a review of psychological research on the aesthetics of the
golden section" Perception 24 937-968
Hoge H, 1995 "Fechner's experimental aesthetics and the golden section hypothesis today" Empirical
Studies of the Arts 13 131-148.
Hoge H, 1997 "Why a special issue on the golden section hypothesis? An introduction" Empirical
Studies of the Arts 15 111-114
Russell, P.A. (2000). Testing the aesthetic significance of the golden-section rectangle. PERCEPTION-LONDON-, 29, 1413-1422.
McManus, IC (1980). The aesthetics of simple figures. British Journal of Psychology, 71, 505-524. PDF