In psychology of art, the relationship between art and emotion has newly been the subject of extensive study. Emotional or aesthetic responses to art have previously been viewed as basic stimulus response, but new theories and research have suggested that these experiences are more complex and able to be studied experimentally. Emotional responses are often regarded as the keystone to experiencing art, and the creation of an emotional experience has been argued as the purpose of artistic expression. Research has shown that the neurological underpinnings of perceiving art differ from those used in standard object recognition. Instead, brain regions involved in the experience of emotion and goal setting show activation when viewing art.
Basis for emotional responses to art Evolutionary ancestry has hard-wired humans to have affective responses for certain patterns and traits. These predispositions lend themselves to responses when looking at certain visual arts as well. Identification of subject matter is the first step in understanding the visual image. Being presented with visual stimuli creates initial confusion.
Other methods of stimulating initial interest that can lead to emotion involves pattern recognition. Symmetry is often found in works of art, and the human brain unconsciously searches for symmetry for a number of reasons. Potential predators were bilaterally symmetrical, as were potential prey. Bilateral symmetry also exists in humans, and a healthy human is typically relatively symmetrical. This attraction to symmetry was therefore advantageous, as it helped humans recognize danger, food, and mates. Art containing symmetry therefore is typically approached and positively valenced to humans.
Another example is to observe paintings or photographs of bright, open landscapes that often evoke a feeling of beauty, relaxation, or happiness. This connection to pleasant emotions exists because it was advantageous to humans before today's society to be able to see far into the distance in a brightly lit vista. Similarly, visual images that are dark and/or obscure typically elicit emotions of anxiety and fear. This is because an impeded visual field is disadvantageous for a human to be able to defend itself.
Meta-emotions
The optimal visual artwork creates what Noy & Noy-Sharav call "meta-emotions". These are multiple emotions that are triggered at the same time. They posit that what people see when immediately looking at a piece of artwork are the formal, technical qualities of the work and its complexity. Works that are well-made but lacking in appropriate complexity, or works that are intricate but missing in technical skill will not produce "meta-emotions". For example, seeing a perfectly painted chair (technical quality but no complexity) or a sloppily drawn image of Christ on the cross (complex but no skill) would be unlikely to stimulate deep emotional responses. However, beautifully painted works of Christ's crucifixion are likely make people who can relate or who understand the story behind it weep.
Noy & Noy-Sharav also claim that art is the most potent form of emotional communication. They cite examples of people being able to listen to and dance to music for hours without getting tired and literature being able to take people to far away, imagined lands inside their heads. Instead of being passive recipients of actions and images, art is intended for people to challenge themselves and work through the emotions they see presented in the artistic message.
Often, people have a difficulty recognizing and explicitly expressing the emotions they are feeling. Art tends to have a way to reach people's emotions on a deeper level and when creating art, it is a way for them to release the emotions they cannot otherwise express. There is a professional denomination within psychotherapy called art therapy or creative arts therapy in which deals with diverse ways of coping with emotions and other cognitive dimensions.
Types of elicited emotions
There is debate among researchers as to what types of emotions works of art can elicit; whether these are defined emotions such as anger, confusion or happiness, or a general feeling of aesthetic appreciation. The aesthetic experience seems to be determined by liking or disliking a work of art, placed along a continuum of pleasure–displeasure. However, other diverse emotions can still be felt in response to art, which can be sorted into three categories: Knowledge Emotions, Hostile Emotions, and Self-Conscious Emotions.
Liking and comprehensibility Pleasure elicited by works of art can also have multiple sources. A number of theories suggest that enjoyment of a work of art is dependent on its comprehensibility or ability to be understood easily. Therefore, when more information about a work of art is provided, such as a title, description, or artist's statement, researchers predict that viewers will understand the piece better, and demonstrate greater liking for it. Experimental evidence shows that the presence of a title increases perceived understanding, regardless of whether that title is elaborate or descriptive. Elaborate titles did affect aesthetic responses to the work, suggesting viewers were not creating alternative explanations for the works if an explaining title is given. Descriptive or random titles do not show any of these effects.
Furthering the thought that pleasure in art derives from its comprehensibility and processing fluency, some authors have described this experience as an emotion. The emotional feeling of beauty, or an aesthetic experience, does not have a valence emotional undercurrent. Rather it is general cognitive arousal due to the fluent processing of a novel stimuli. Some authors believe that aesthetic emotions is enough of a unique and verifiable experience that it should be included in general theories of emotion.
Knowledge emotions Knowledge emotions deal with reactions to thinking and feeling, such as interest, confusion, awe, and surprise. They often stem from self-analysis of what the viewer knows, expects, and perceives. This set of emotions also spur actions that motivate further learning and thinking.
Emotions are momentary states and differ in intensity depending on the person. Each emotion elicits a different response. Surprise completely wipes the brain and body of any other thoughts or functions because everything is focused on the possibility of danger. Interest ties in with curiosity and humans are a curious species. Interest spikes learning and exploration. Confusion goes hand in hand with interest, because when learning something new, it can often be hard to understand, especially if unfamiliar. However, confusion also promotes learning and thinking. Awe is a state of wonder, and it is the deepest of the knowledge emotions as well as very uncommon.
Interest Interest in a work of art arises from perceiving the work as new, complex, and unfamiliar, as well as understandable. This dimension is studied most often by aesthetics researchers, and can be equated with aesthetic pleasure or an aesthetic experience. This stage of art experience usually occurs as the viewer understands the artwork they are viewing, and the art fits into their knowledge and expectations while providing a new experience.
Confusion Confusion can be viewed as an opposite to interest, and serves as a signal to the self to inform the viewer that they cannot comprehend what they are looking at, and confusion often necessitates a shift in action to remedy the lack of understanding. Confusion is thought to stem from uncertainty, and a lack of one's expectations and knowledge being met by a work of art. Confusion is most often experienced by art novices, and therefore must often be dealt with by those in arts education.
Surprise Surprise functions as a disruption of current action to alert a viewer to a significant event. The emotion is centered around the experience of something new and unexpected, and can be elicit by sensory incongruity. Art can elicit surprise when expectations about the work are not met, but the work changes those expectations in an understandable way.
Hostile emotions Hostile emotions toward art are often very visible in the form of anger or frustration, and can result in censorship, but are less easily described by a continuum of aesthetic pleasure-displeasure. These reactions center around the hostility triad: anger, disgust, and contempt. These emotions often motivate aggression, self-assertion, and violence, and arise from perception of the artist's deliberate trespass onto the expectations of the viewer.
Self-conscious emotions
Self-conscious emotions are responses that reflect upon the self and one's actions, such as pride, guilt, shame, regret and embarrassment. These are much more complex emotions, and involve assessing events as agreeing with one's self-perception or not, and adjusting one's behavior accordingly. There are numerous instances of artists expressing self-conscious emotions in response to their art, and self-conscious emotions can also be felt collectively.
Sublime feelings Researchers have investigated the experience of the sublime, viewed as similar to aesthetic appreciation, which causes general psychological arousal. The sublime feeling has been connected to a feeling of happiness in response to art, but may be more related to an experience of fear. Researchers have shown that feelings of fear induced before looking at artwork results in more sublime feelings in response to those works.
Aesthetic chills
Another common emotional response is that of chills when viewing a work of art. The feeling is predicted to be related to similar aesthetic experiences such as awe, feeling touched, or absorption. Personality traits along the Big 5 Inventory have been shown to be predictors of a person's experience of aesthetic chills, especially a high rating on Openness to Experience. Experience with the arts also predicts someone's experience of aesthetic chills, but this may be due to them experiencing art more frequently.
Effects of expertise The fact that art is analyzed and experienced differently by those with artistic training and expertise than those who are artistically naive has been shown numerous times. Researchers have tried to understand how experts interact with art so differently from the art naive, as experts tend to like more abstract compositions, and show a greater liking for both modern and classical types of art. Experts also exhibit more arousal when looking at modern and abstract works, while non-experts show more arousal to classical works.
Other researchers predicted that experts find more complex art interesting because they have changed their appraisals of art to create more interest, or are possibly making completely different types of appraisals than novices. Experts described works rated high in complexity as easier to understand and more interesting than did novices, possibly as experts tend to use more idiosyncratic criteria when judging artworks. However, experts seem to use the same appraisals of emotions that novices do, but these appraisals are at a higher level, because a wider range of art is comprehensible to experts.
Expertise and museum visits