The Positive Humanities: Investigating the Wellbeing Effects of Engagement in Arts and Culture
Symposium Chair: James O. Pawelski, University of Pennsylvania
The arts and culture are critical for human flourishing. Music, art, architecture, theatre, film, literature, philosophy, history, religion, and similar pursuits play central roles in the socialization and education of children, the leisure time of adults, and the cohesion of communities, nations, and society at large. Yet we have little scientific knowledge of the relationship between cultural engagement and individual and collective human flourishing. The Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, based in the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center and including a growing international network of more than 100 social scientists, humanities scholars, and creative practitioners, is engaged in theoretical and empirical work to open up possibilities for the scientific study of the intrinsic benefits of cultural engagement. This international symposium presents empirical research investigating the relationship between arts and culture and wellbeing. First, Damien Crone will present findings from a survey administered to a representative U.S. sample on their engagement in arts and humanities experiences and activities, with results suggesting that this engagement may elicit wellbeing-promoting psychological responses. Next, Katherine Cotter will offer the results of a daily diary study on the wellbeing effects of visiting an art exhibit curated with the intent to promote empathy and reflection on the lives of others. In the third presentation, Yerin Shim will provide cross-cultural data from a South Korean sample on the mechanisms involved with deriving wellbeing outcomes from arts and humanities engagement. Finally, Anjan Chatterjee will share the findings of three neuroaesthetic studies exploring the effects of architectural interiors on wellbeing.
A large-scale multi-method descriptive study of the content of personally significant arts- and humanities-related experiences and activities
Damien Crone, University of Pennsylvania (presenter)
Louis Tay, Purdue University
James O. Pawelski, University of Pennsylvania
Background
All over the world, people dedicate enormous quantities of time, effort and material resources to activities (e.g., teaching, studying, creating, observing) across the various domains of the arts and humanities (A&H). Such activities are often assumed to make valuable contributions to people’s wellbeing, broadly construed, however there is scant empirical research on questions such as if, when, how, and for whom this is the case.
Hypotheses/Research Questions
Using a combination of natural language processing and conventional multivariate analyses, we address a wide range of questions such as: To what extent are broad personality traits associated with the tendency to report more personally significant A&H-related experiences and activities? What are the cognitive, affective and concrete situational features of such experiences and activities? To what extent are the various features of these A&H-related activities associated with different facets of wellbeing? And finally, what are the similarities and differences in such experiences and activities across different domains of the arts and humanities?
Sample Characteristics and Sample Size
A representative sample of US residents (N = 900).
Design
Participants provided detailed open-ended and closed-response descriptions of both discrete, transformative A&H-related experiences, and personally important everyday A&H-related activities.
Results
Preliminary analyses (Oct. 2020) suggest that A&H engagement (1) is extremely diverse in its concrete features and subjective qualities, (2) frequently elicits wellbeing-promoting psychological responses (e.g., reflection, socialization, engagement) hypothesized in earlier conceptual work, and (3) is robustly positively associated with a wide range of wellbeing indicators. Data analysis is ongoing.
Scientific Contribution
By presenting a broad picture of when, how, and for whom engaging with the arts and humanities relates to wellbeing, we lay the ground for further focused investigations into causal mechanisms linking the two.
Art Museums as Institutes for Wellbeing: A Daily Diary Study
Katherine N. Cotter, University of Pennsylvania (presenter)
Background
People visit art museums for a variety of reasons--to see something beautiful or famous, to learn more about art, or to experience a sense of awe. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in how visits to an art museum can promote wellbeing related outcomes, with some countries now socially prescribing visits to the museum to promote mental health and wellbeing. There is limited empirical work, however, examining the efficacy of such programs or even whether art museum visits can promote wellbeing.
Research Question
The present research examined how visiting an art exhibit curated with the intent to promote empathy and reflection on the lives of others influence wellbeing.
Sample
The sample consisted of 41 undergraduate students.
Design
Participants completed 15 days of daily diaries each evening assessing daily emotional experiences, empathy, prosocial behavior, and quality of life. Mid-way through the study, participants visited the art exhibit.
Results
Relative to responses in the week prior to the museum visit, participants indicated higher levels of empathy and quality of life immediately after the visit (i.e., in that evening’s diary). These effects were not long-lasting, however—most effects dissipated within the days following the museum visit.
Scientific Contribution
The findings suggest that art museum visitation may increase wellbeing in the short-term, and additional visits or other modes of engagement may be necessary in maintaining any wellbeing gains.
Cross-Cultural Validation and Measurement Equivalence of the Korean version of the Mechanisms of Arts and Humanities Scale (MAH-K)
Yerin Shim, Chungnam National University (presenter)
Seojin Stacey Lee, Seoul National University
Incheol Choi, Seoul National University
Louis Tay, Purdue University
James O. Pawelski, University of Pennsylvania
Background: Engagement with the arts and humanities is regarded as a universal human behavior, yet its expressions are culturally diverse. While people from different cultures engage in various forms of arts and humanities, the underlying processes may be common across cultures. This study examined whether people from different cultural backgrounds—the U.S. and South Korea—engage in the arts and humanities through similar mechanisms that lead to a variety of flourishing outcomes. The Mechanisms of Arts and Humanities Scale (MAH) is a recently developed and validated scale measuring five psychological mechanisms (i.e., reflectiveness, embeddedness, immersion, socialization, and expressiveness) with U.S. samples. Results from a cross-cultural validation and measurement equivalence test of the Korean version of the scale (MAH-K) and its implications will be presented.
Hypotheses/Research Questions: What are the psychometric properties of the MAH-K? Is the factor structure of the original MAH supported in the MAH-K?
Sample Characteristics and Sample Size: 500 South Korean adults including lay people and arts and humanities professionals (49.4% female, age M= 43.5 years, SD=12.074).
Study Design: A cross-sectional design was used based on an online survey with a research panel. Prior to data collection, standard cross-cultural scale translation procedures were applied. The MAH-K, arts and humanities engagement, demographics, and flourishing outcomes including thriving, positive/negative affect, life satisfaction, meaning in life and work, interpersonal reactivity, and civic engagement were assessed.
Results: Data analysis is currently in progress. A series of statistical analyses including single and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and linear regression are being conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the MAH-K, and its measurement equivalence (i.e., configural, metric, and scalar invariance) to the original MAH.
Scientific Contribution: This study has the potential to open up possibilities for future cross-cultural research on how arts and humanities engagement lead to flourishing in the U.S. and South Korea and to encourage similar research in other countries.
Wellbeing and the Built Environment
Anjan Chatterjee, University of Pennsylvania (presenter)
Background
People in developed countries spend over 90% of their time in built environments. Yet, we know relatively little about its pervasive and often hidden effects on our mental state.
Hypotheses
1) Aesthetic responses to architectural interiors reduce to key psychological dimensions that are sensitive to design features. 2) These psychological dimensions evoke specific neural markers.
Sample Characteristics/Design/Results
Experiment 1: 798 on-line participants rated 200 images of architectural interiors on 16 aesthetic measures. Using Psychometric Network Analysis (PNA) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA), we identified three communities and components that explained 90% of the variance in ratings: coherence (ease of organizing and comprehending a scene), fascination (informational richness and generated interest), and hominess (personal ease and comfort). Coherence and fascination are well-established dimensions for natural scenes. Hominess was a new dimension related to architectural interiors. Central to all three communities in the PNA was emotional valence.
Experiment 2 (n = 614): PCA results were replicated in an independent sample, indicating the robustness of our findings.
Experiment 3: Reanalyzed data from an fMRI study in which participants (n = 18) made beauty and approach-avoidance decisions when viewing the same images. Regardless of task, the degree of fascination covaried with neural activity in the right lingual gyrus. In contrast, coherence covaried with neural activity in the left inferior occipital gyrus only when participants judged beauty, and hominess covaried with neural activity in the left cuneus only when they made approach-avoidance decisions. Importantly, these neural activations did not covary in relation to global image properties including self-similarity and complexity.
Scientific Contribution
The visual brain harbors hidden sensitivities to architectural interiors that are captured by the psychological dimensions of coherence, fascination, and hominess. Architectural valuation expressed in visual cortices varies by specific components and response context in affecting our emotional state.