Simply looking at artwork, whether it be in a museum, in the home or in a hospital room can enhance wellbeing.
Research published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that looking at art, particularly repeatedly doing so, can boost a feeling of meaning in life.
“The main inspiration for this study was the lack of a clear understanding of how the simple act of viewing art could support or influence health and well-being. In the past, significant efforts focused on creative activities such as painting, drawing courses, and creating or listening to music. However, visits to art museums and encounters with art installed in public spaces received much less attention. Thus, our primary aim was to compile the evidence base for the first time by looking broadly across several fields of study,” MacKenzie Trupp, lead author and researcher at the University of Vienna and Radboud UMC, Donders Institute told Theravive.
“We found the strongest evidence for eudaimonic well-being, which refers to the meaning and purpose that one feels in their life. Interestingly, this outcome was also the least frequently studied, and thus we call for more research into this promising area. For other outcomes, such as anxiety, pain, or satisfaction with one’s life, there was less evidence suggesting positive effects. However, in much of the past research, we were concerned to see trends of low-quality studies, characterised by small sample sizes and a lack of control conditions to isolate the effects of art viewing from confounds.”
In the past few decades, the concept of art being beneficial for mental health has gained traction. Whilst it has been believed that creating art can have psychological and emotional benefits, the impact just viewing art can have on wellbeing has been under explored.
To address this, the researchers reviewed data from 38 studies that involved 6805 participants. They sought to determine not only if viewing art can improve wellbeing, but also when and under what conditions.
“Mainly, we found in the past literature that art viewing activities were much broader and more complex than we had previously anticipated. We discovered that such activities were being researched across diverse settings, including several different types of accessory tasks (like reflection, discussions, social aspects, etc.), and that these aspects should be considered as important contributing factors in the future along side the simple act of viewing,” Trupp said.
The authors note that viewing art for wellbeing can take many forms. Some of the studies featured art viewing in museum, living rooms, online platforms and hospitals. Some of the art viewing involved a single exposure whilst others involved a longer experience with multiple art viewing sessions.
Some art viewing was also accompanied by other activities like guided reflections, creative exercises.
The researchers believe art viewing could impact wellbeing in a number of ways.
“Art can impact well-being through five main categories of reasons or ‘mechanisms’. These included affective (emotion and stress regulation and pleasure-related), cognitive (learning, memory evoking, and attention-stimulating), social (reducing isolation and increasing connection), self-transformational (inducing reflection, boosting self-esteem and positive beliefs about self), and resilience-building pathways (supporting restoration, coping, and healthy behaviours)… Overall, we discovered that art-viewing activities can activate various well-being-supporting processes that are not specific to art,” Trupp said.
She is hopeful the study can inspire further research and funding in the area, including how art viewing could best be harnessed as a mental health intervention.
“This work can help inform future larger, more sophisticated studies and, from the policy side, hopefully inspire more funding for such research. Next, within this area of study, I would like to see large-scale studies that seek to answer how best art-viewing activities can be designed for well-being benefits. Right now, we don’t have clear ideas about what dosage or schedule one might need to participate in or how to optimise the experience for the best outcomes,” Trupp said.