Can a Brief Interaction With Online, Digital Art Improve Wellbeing? A Comparative Study of the Impact of Online Art and Culture Presentations on Mood, State-Anxiety, Subjective Wellbeing, and Loneliness

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 13; p. 782033
• Main Authors: Trupp, MacKenzie D., Bignardi, Giacomo, Chana, Kirren, Specker, Eva, Pelowski, Matthew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A 30.06.2022
• Subjects: art viewing; cultural engagement; digital art; mental health; Psychology; receptive art engagement; wellbeing
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.782033

When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated—in a growing body of evidence—with positive outcomes in wellbeing and mental health. This represents an exciting new field for psychology, curation, and health interventions, suggesting a widely-accessible, cost-effective, and non-pharmaceutical means of regulating factors such as mood or anxiety. However, can similar impacts be found with online presentations? If so, this would open up positive outcomes to an even-wider population—a trend accelerating due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its promise, this question, and the underlying mechanisms of art interventions and impacts, has largely not been explored. Participants ( N = 84) were asked to engage with one of two online exhibitions from Google Arts and Culture (a Monet painting or a similarly-formatted display of Japanese culinary traditions). With just 1–2 min exposure, both improved negative mood, state-anxiety, loneliness, and wellbeing. Stepdown analysis suggested the changes can be explained primarily via negative mood, while improvements in mood correlated with aesthetic appraisals and cognitive-emotional experience of the exhibition. However, no difference was found between exhibitions. We discuss the findings in terms of applications and targets for future research.