Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:58:28.749Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - For Emotion’s Sake … The Centrality of Emotions in the Art Experience

from Part IV - Emotions and Creative Products

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2023

By
Pablo P. L. Tinio  and
Eva Specker
Edited by
Zorana Ivcevic ,
Jessica D. Hoffmann  and
James C. Kaufman
Zorana Ivcevic
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Jessica D. Hoffmann
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Get access

Summary

Emotions are some of the most discussed aspects of the experience of art, and it has even been argued that emotions are synonymous with art. This chapter will delve into how art simultaneously conveys and evokes emotions, a feature that helps to distinguish the experience of art from experiences in other areas of life. The chapter will also discuss the developments in research methodologies and trends in the scientific study of art that have brought our understanding of art from being based mainly on anecdotal evidence to being empirically-founded. The longstanding issues associated with emotions and art, as well as present state-of-the-art research on the role of emotions in aesthetic experiences, will also be presented. Finally, the chapter will identify some of the questions and challenges for future research in emotions and art.

Keywords

emotionsartaesthetic experienceart appreciationmuseums
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions , pp. 358 - 375
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Augustin, D., & Leder, H. (2006). Art expertise: A study of concepts and conceptual spaces. Psychology Science, 48(2), 135–156.Google Scholar
Barrett, L. F., Gross, J., Christensen, T. C., & Benvenuto, M. (2001). Knowing what you’re feeling and knowing what to do about it: Mapping the relation between emotion differentiation and emotion regulation. Cognition & Emotion, 15(6), 713–724. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930143000239Google Scholar
Bell, C. (1914). Art. Frederick A. Stokes Company.Google Scholar
Benjamin, W. (1969). Illuminations. Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Carbon, C. C. (2020). Ecological art experience: How we can gain experimental control while preserving ecologically valid settings and contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 800. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00800Google Scholar
Carr, D. (1991). Minds in museums and libraries: The cognitive management of cultural institutions. Teachers College Record, 93, 6–27.Google Scholar
Carr, D. (1992). Cultural institutions as structures for cognitive change. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 53, 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.36719925305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, D. W. (2003). The Promise of Cultural Institutions. AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, A. (2003). Prospects for a cognitive neuroscience of visual aesthetics. Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts, 4, 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/e514602010–003Google Scholar
Chatterjee, A., & Vartanian, O. (2014). Neuroaesthetics. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(7), 370–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.03.003Google Scholar
Dimberg, U. (1990). Facial electromyography and emotional reactions. Psychophysiology, 27, 481–494. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1990.tb01962.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dissanayake, E. (2007). What art is and what art does: An overview of contemporary evolutionary hypotheses. In Martindale, C., Locher, P., & Petrov, V. M. (Eds.), Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (pp. 1–14). Baywood.Google Scholar
Else, J. E., Ellis, J., & Orme, E. (2015). Art expertise modulates the emotional response to modern art, especially abstract: An ERP investigation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 525. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00525Google Scholar
Fayn, K., Silvia, P. J., Erbas, Y., Tiliopoulos, N., & Kuppens, P. (2018). Nuanced aesthetic emotions: Emotion differentiation is related to knowledge of the arts and curiosity. Cognition and Emotion, 32(3), 593–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1322554Google Scholar
Fingerhut, J., & Prinz, J. J. (2020). Aesthetic emotions reconsidered. The Monist, 103(2), 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onz037CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frijda, N. H. (1988). The laws of emotion. American Psychologist, 43, 349–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.43.5.349.Google Scholar
Frijda, N., & Schram, D. (1995). Emotions and cultural products: Psychological reaction to the arts and literature. Poetics, 23, 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(95)90009-W.Google Scholar
Gerger, G., Leder, H., & Kremer, A. (2014). Context effects on emotional and aesthetic evaluations of artworks and IAPS pictures. Acta Psychologica, 151, 174–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.06.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerger, G., Leder, H., Tinio, P. P. L., & Schacht, A. (2011). Faces versus patterns: Exploring aesthetic reactions using facial EMG. Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts, 5, 241–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024154Google Scholar
Harrison, C., & Wood, P. (2003). Art in Theory 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Huang, M., Bridge, H., Kemp, M. J., & Parker, A. J. (2011). Human cortical activity evoked by the assignment of authenticity when viewing works of art. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5, 134. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00134Google Scholar
Illes, A., & Tinio, P. P. L. (in press). Experiencing art in museums: Empirical aesthetics, neuroaesthetics, and museum studies. In Nadal, M & Skov, M (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics.Google Scholar
Juslin, P. N. (2013). From everyday emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of musical emotions. Physics of Life Reviews, 10, 235–266. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.plrev.2013.05.008Google Scholar
Kashdan, T. B., Barrett, L. F., & McKnight, P. E. (2015). Unpacking emotion differentiation: Transforming unpleasant experience by perceiving distinctions in negativity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 10–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414550708Google Scholar
Kirk, U., Skov, M., Hulme, O., Christensen, M. S., & Zeki, S. (2009). Modulation of aesthetic value by semantic context: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 44, 1125–1132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage .2008.10.009Google Scholar
Koelsch, S., & Siebel, W. A. (2005). Towards a neural basis of music perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 578–584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.10.001Google Scholar
Kreitler, H., & Kreitler, S. (1972). Psychology of the Arts. Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Kruger, J., Wirtz, D., Van Boven, L., & Altermatt, T. W. (2004). The effort heuristic. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(1), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00065-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubovy, M. (1999). On the Pleasures of the Mind. Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1999). International Affective Picture System: Technical Manual and Affective Ratings. The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., Greenwald, M. K., Bradley, M. M., & Hamm, A. O. (1993). Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. Psychophysiology, 30(3), 261–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1993.tb03352.xGoogle Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (2001). Relational meaning and discrete emotions. In Scherer, K. R., Schorr, A., & Johnstone, T. (Eds.), Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research (pp. 37–67). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leder, H., Belke, B., Oeberst, A., & Augustin, D. (2004). A model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments. British Journal of Psychology, 95, 489–508. https://doi.org/10.1348/0007126042369811Google Scholar
Leder, H., Gerger, G., Brieber, D., & Schwarz, N. (2014). What makes an art expert? Emotion and evaluation in art appreciation. Cognition and Emotion, 28(6), 1137–1147. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2013.870132Google Scholar
Leder, H., Gerger, G., Dressler, S., & Schabmann, A. (2012). How art is appreciated. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 6, 2–10. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026396Google Scholar
Leder, H., & Nadal, M. (2014). Ten years of a model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments: The aesthetic episode – developments and challenges in empirical aesthetics. British Journal of Psychology, 105, 443–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12084CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, J. (1997). Emotion in response to art. In Hjort, M. & Laver, S. (Eds.), Emotion and the Arts (pp. 20–34). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Locher, P. J. (1996). The contribution of eye-movement research to an understanding of the nature of pictorial balance perception: A review of the literature. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 14, 143–163. https://doi.org/10.2190/D77M-3NU4-DQ88-H1QGGoogle Scholar
Locher, P. J. (2003). An empirical investigation of the visual rightness theory of picture perception. Acta Psychologica, 114, 147–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2003.07.001Google Scholar
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., et al. (2017). The distancing-embracing model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, 1–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17000309Google ScholarPubMed
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., et al. (2019). What are aesthetic emotions? Psychological Review, 126(2), 171–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000135CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mikuni, J., Specker, E., Pelowski, M., Leder, H., & Kawabata, H. (2021). Is there a general “art fatigue” effect? A cross-paradigm, cross-cultural study of repeated art viewing in the laboratory. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000396Google Scholar
Millis, K. (2001). Making meaning brings pleasure: The influence of titles on aesthetic experiences. Emotion, 1, 320–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.1.3.320CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mullennix, J. W., Kristo, G. M., & Robinet, J. (2020). Effects of preceding context on aesthetic preference. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 38(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237418805687Google Scholar
Nadal, M., Vartanian, O., & Skov, M. (2017). Psychological models of art reception must be empirically grounded. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, 36–37. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17001790Google Scholar
Newman, G. E., & Bloom, P. (2012). Art and authenticity: The importance of originals in judgments of value. Journal of Experimental Psychology General, 141, 558–569. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026035Google Scholar
Parsons, M. J. (1987). How We Understand Art: A Cognitive Developmental Account of Aesthetic Experience. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pelowski, M., Forster, M., Tinio, P. P. L., Scholl, M., & Leder, H. (2017). Beyond the lab: Framework for examining interactions with art in museums. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11, 245–264. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000141Google Scholar
Pelowski, M., Markey, P. S., Forster, M., Gerger, G., & Leder, H. (2017). Move me, astonish me … delight my eyes and brain: The Vienna integrated model of top-down and bottom-up processes in art perception (VIMAP) and corresponding affective, evaluative, and neurophysiological correlates. Physics of Life Reviews, 21, 80–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2017.02.003Google Scholar
Pelowski, M., Specker, E., Boddy, J., et al. (2021). Together in the dark? Investigating the understanding and feeling of intended emotions between viewers and professional artists at the Venice Biennale. Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000436.Google Scholar
Pelowski, M., Specker, E., Gerger, G., Leder, H., & Weingarden, L. S. (2020). Do you feel like I do? A study of spontaneous and deliberate emotion sharing and understanding between artists and perceivers of installation art. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 14(3), 276–293. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000201Google Scholar
Reitstätter, L., Brinkmann, H., Santini, T., et al. (2020). The display makes a difference: A mobile eye tracking study on the perception of art before and after a museum’s rearrangement. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.13.2.6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, P. A. (2003). Effort after meaning and the hedonic value of paintings. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712603762842138Google Scholar
Scherer, K. R. (2001). Appraisal considered as a process of multilevel sequential checking. In Scherer, K. R., Schorr, A., & Johnstone, T. (Eds.), Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research (pp. 92–120). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scherer, K. R. (2005). What are emotions? And how can they be measured? Social Science Information, 44, 695–729. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0539018405058216Google Scholar
Scherer, K. R., & Zentner, M. (2008). Music evoked emotions are different – More often aesthetic than utilitarian. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 595–596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x08005505Google Scholar
Silvia, P. J. (2005). Cognitive appraisals and interest in visual art: Exploring an appraisal theory of aesthetic emotions. Empirical studies of the arts, 23(2), 119–133. https://doi.org/10.2190/12AV-AH2P-MCEH-289EGoogle Scholar
Silvia, P. J. (2006). Artistic training and interest in visual art: Applying the appraisal model of aesthetic emotions. Empirical studies of the arts, 24(2), 139–161. https://doi.org/10.2190/DX8K-6WEA-6WPA-FM84Google Scholar
Silvia, P. J. (2009). Looking past pleasure: anger, confusion, disgust, pride, surprise, and other unusual aesthetic emotions. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 3(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014632Google Scholar
Silvia, P. J. (2013). Interested experts, confused novices: Art expertise and the knowledge emotions. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 31(1), 107–115. https://doi.org/10.2190/EM.31.1.fCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silvia, P. J., & Brown, E. M. (2007). Anger, disgust, and the negative aesthetic emotions: Expanding an appraisal model of aesthetic experience. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 1(2), 100. https://doi.org/10.1037/1931-3896.1.2.100Google Scholar
Skov, M., & Nadal, M. (2020). There are no aesthetic emotions. Psychological Review, 126(2), 640–649. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000187Google Scholar
Smith, J. K. (2014). The Museum Effect: How Museums, Libraries, and Cultural Institutions Educate and Civilize Society. Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Smith, J. K., & Carr, D. W. (2001). In Byzantium. Curator, 44, 335–354. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb01174.xGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. K., & Wolf, L. F. (1996). Museum visitor preferences and intentions in constructing aesthetic experience. Poetics, 24, 219–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(95)00006-6Google Scholar
Specker, E. (2021). Further validating the VAIAK: Defining a psychometric model, configural measurement invariance, reliability, and practical guidelines. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000427Google Scholar
Specker, E., Fekete, A., Trupp, M. D., & Leder, H. (2021). Is a “real” artwork better than a reproduction? A meta-analysis of the genuineness effect. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000399Google Scholar
Specker, E., Forster, M., Brinkmann, H., et al. (2018). The Vienna Art Interest and Art Knowledge Questionnaire (VAIAK): A unified and validated measure of art interest and art knowledge. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 14(2), 172. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000205Google Scholar
Specker, E., Stamkou, E., Pelowski, M., & Leder, H. (2020). Radically revolutionary or pretty flowers? The impact of curatorial narrative of artistic deviance on perceived artist influence. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000320Google Scholar
Specker, E., Tinio, P. P. L., & van Elk, M. (2017). Do you see what I see? An investigation of the aesthetic experience in the laboratory and museum. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11, 265–275. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000107Google Scholar
Tinio, P. P. L. (2013). From artistic creation to aesthetic reception: The mirror model of art. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 7, 265–275. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030872CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinio, P. P. L. (2020). Aesthetics. In Runco, R. & Pritzker, S. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed., pp. 18–22). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978–0-12-809324-5.23690-0Google Scholar
Tinio, P. P. L., & Gartus, A. (2018). Characterizing the emotional response to art beyond pleasure: Correspondence between the emotional characteristics of artworks and viewers’ emotional responses. Progress in Brain Research, 237, 319–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.03.005Google Scholar
Tinio, P. P. L., Smith, J. K., & Smith, L. F. (2014). The walls do speak: Psychological aesthetics and the museum experience. In Tinio, P. P. L. & Smith, J. K. (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Aesthetics and the Arts (pp. 195–218). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139207058.011Google Scholar
Tröndle, M. (2014). Space, movement and attention: Affordances of the museum environment. International Journal of Arts Management, 17(1), 4–17. www.jstor.org/stable/24587224Google Scholar
Van de Cruys, S., & Wagemans, J. (2011). Putting reward in art: A tentative prediction error account of visual art. i-Perception, 2(9), 1035–1062. https://doi.org/10.1068/i0466aapCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vartanian, O., & Nadal, M. (2007). A biological approach to a model of aesthetic experience. In Dorfman, L., Martindale, C., & Petrov, V. (Eds.), Aesthetics and Innovation (pp. 429–444). Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., et al. (2013). Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 10446–10453. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301227110Google Scholar
Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., et al. (2019). Preference for curvilinear contour in interior architectural spaces: Evidence from experts and nonexperts. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(1), 110–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000150Google Scholar
Wolz, S. H., & Carbon, C. C. (2014). What’s wrong with an art fake? Cognitive and emotional variables influenced by authenticity status of artworks. Leonardo, 47, 467–473. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_00869Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×