Get in the mood at a museum! Here are five scientifically proven reasons why Renoir and Ukiyo-e have a positive effect on the mind:
//Summary - Level-B2//
A recent international study shows that appreciating visual art, such as paintings by Renoir or Ukiyo-e prints, can boost happiness, reduce stress, and support personal growth. Researchers identified five key psychological mechanisms: emotional regulation, reflection, and social connection. Museums, galleries, and even virtual spaces offer accessible ways to improve well-being, making art appreciation a valuable mental health resource.
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It has been suggested that art can have various effects, but a recent study reported that appreciating visual art can significantly increase happiness. Appreciating art brings joy and peace of mind and positively affects mental health.
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Are museums places where you can be happy?
As the rainy season approaches and the mood for sightseeing calms down, art-related topics seem to thrive.
For example, the 'Five Great Ukiyo-e Artists Exhibition' will be held at the Ueno Royal Museum from 27 May, and the 'Renoir x Cézanne' exhibition will be held at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Marunouchi, Tokyo, from 29 May.
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While it would be wonderful to take this opportunity to appreciate real Ukiyo-e, Renoir and Cézanne paintings, a recent study reported that appreciating artwork increases happiness, improves life satisfaction and promotes personal growth. Museums are also places where you can be happy.
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In April this year, a team of psychology researchers from the University of Vienna in Austria, Trinity College Dublin in the UK, and Humboldt University Berlin in Germany published a study in The Journal of Positive Psychology.
The study found that appreciating artworks increases happiness, which is associated with meaning in life and personal growth.
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Previous research has suggested that appreciating artworks may affect mood and stress levels, but the researchers say this research has been limited and inconsistent.
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Five psychological mechanisms of visual art:
The research team reviewed 38 previously published studies involving 6,805 participants. The aim was to clarify how art appreciation improves health and the psychological processes involved.
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These 38 studies, published between 2000 and 2023, were extracted from four major databases: CINAHL, EBSCOhost, Scopus, and PubMed.
The research team identified five psychological mechanisms that explain how art appreciation promotes well-being.
1. Affective mechanisms: emotion regulation and hedonic experiences triggered by aesthetic responses.
2. Cognitive mechanisms involve attention, memory and learning; art can encourage introspection or stimulate curiosity.
3. Social mechanisms explain how shared art experiences can foster connections and reduce feelings of isolation.
4. Self-transformation mechanisms enable personal introspection, an enhanced sense of identity, and a greater understanding of meaning.
5. Resilience-building mechanisms support emotional coping and recovery, particularly in high-stress and clinical environments.
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These mechanisms provide valuable insights for future research and can help us use art more effectively. To standardise and improve future research in this field, the authors have developed the Receptive Arts Activity Research Reporting Guidelines (RAARR).
These guidelines will provide a new standard for comparing, evaluating, and replicating future arts applications and research more effectively.
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Appreciating art can have a positive impact on health.
The research team believes that the happiness brought about by appreciating visual art is eudaimonic well-being. This refers to a more profound, long-lasting sense of joy rooted in personal growth and contributing to something greater than oneself.
In other words, it is a profound sense of happiness accompanied by awe, such as when faced with a breathtaking, majestic natural landscape.
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The research team observed the benefits of eudaimonic well-being in various locations, including museums, galleries, clinics, hospitals, and virtual reality spaces.
They found that a wide range of visual arts, including figurative and abstract paintings, modern and contemporary art, photography, sculpture, and installation art, enhanced well-being.
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'Although art is often considered a luxury, our study suggests that appreciating art, whether as a hobby or as a targeted health intervention, can meaningfully support health,' says Mackenzie Trupp, a researcher at the University of Vienna and the Donders Institute at the Radboud University Medical Centre, in a press release from the University of Vienna.
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'By reframing art as a low-cost, accessible health resource, this study opens up exciting possibilities for integrating art into everyday environments and public health strategies,' says Trupp.
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The benefits of art in everyday life:
Claire Howlin, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Trinity University, points out that 'while the mental health benefits of creating artworks have been widely studied, the impact of appreciating artworks has been understudied and underestimated', and hopes that the significance of art appreciation will be better understood.
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Since 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended using creative approaches alongside routine clinical care.
Appreciating art could help people explore the meaning of life, improve their self-esteem, and foster a positive identity.
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Ministries of health and arts councils in European countries call for high-quality evidence to identify how art can contribute to specific medical outcomes. This study will undoubtedly inform the design of future large-scale studies.
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Visual artworks are everywhere in everyday life, such as museums, galleries, hospitals and homes. By understanding their effects, we can expect that daily exposure to art can raise our well-being.
We should actively seek out art in our daily lives for our mental health.
Get in the mood at a museum! Here are five scientifically proven reasons why Renoir and Ukiyo-e have a positive effect on the mind:
https://dime.jp/genre/1972561/
Add info No1)
*Research paper
The impact of viewing art on well-being—a systematic review of the evidence base and suggested mechanisms
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2025.2481041
Add info No2)
*Reference article
Adding Art to Our Lives Boosts Well-being
//Summary - Level-C1//
An international review reveals that viewing art, especially repeatedly, can significantly enhance well-being by fostering meaning, emotional regulation, social connection, and resilience. Synthesising 38 studies, researchers identified five key psychological mechanisms and introduced standardised guidelines (RAARR) to improve future interventions. These findings advocate integrating art viewing into health, education, and public policy as a low-cost mental health strategy.
Researchers identify the benefits of participating in art-viewing activities
Simply looking at visual art, visiting a museum, or having art in your hospital room can enhance well-being, particularly repeated engagement, which can increase the meaning we feel in life, according to a new international study led by researchers from the University of Vienna. The systematic review, published in The Journal of Positive Psychology, is the first to comprehensively evaluate how, when, and why art viewing supports mental health. It was conducted by an interdisciplinary team from Vienna, Dublin, Berlin, Cambridge, and Nijmegen.
Over the past decades, the idea that the arts can support mental health has gained momentum. While creating art has long been seen as beneficial for emotional and psychological well-being, the effects of simply viewing art have remained largely underexplored. Findings to date were scattered and inconsistent, with few studies examining the conditions under which art viewing may be effective. The new review synthesized data from 38 studies involving 6,805 participants, aiming to determine not only whether viewing art improves well-being, but also when, under what conditions, and through which psychological processes it does so. These 38 studies, published between 2000 and 2023, were drawn from four major databases.
Positive Potential
The researchers found the strongest evidence for benefits in eudemonic well-being - a sense of meaning, purpose, and personal development. "People often think of art as a luxury, but our findings suggest that participating in viewing art activities - whether as part of one's hobbies or through a targeted intervention - can meaningfully support well-being," said MacKenzie Trupp, lead author and researcher at the University of Vienna and Radboud UMC, Donders Institute. "This opens up exciting possibilities for integrating art into everyday environments and public health strategies."
Frames and Formats
Art viewing for well-being can happen in a wide range of contexts - from museums and hospitals to living rooms and online platforms. The reviewed studies included both single exposures and longer programs with multiple sessions. Participants engaged in diverse activities, including individual viewing, guided sessions, and reflective tasks such as journaling, emotional rating, or discussion. Many interventions combined art viewing with so-called "accessory activities" like guided reflection or creative exercises. Reflective strategies were among the most frequently used - and may play a central role in achieving positive effects.
Mechanisms
While earlier studies hinted at benefits such as mood improvement or stress reduction, the field lacked synthesis and conceptual clarity. The researchers identified five psychological mechanisms that help explain how art viewing supports well-being. Affective mechanisms include emotional regulation and the experience of pleasure, triggered by aesthetic responses. Cognitive mechanisms involve attention, memory, and learning - art can prompt reflection or stimulate curiosity. Social mechanisms describe how shared art experiences foster connection and reduce feelings of isolation. Self-transformative mechanisms allow for personal reflection, identity reinforcement, and a sense of meaning. Finally, resilience-building mechanisms support emotional coping, and restoration, especially in clinical or high-stress environments. Together, these mechanisms offer valuable insights for future research and help inform the design of more effective art-based interventions. To help standardize and improve future studies in this field, the authors developed the Receptive Art Activity Research Reporting Guidelines (RAARR) - a new set of criteria to ensure that future interventions and research can be better compared, evaluated, and replicated.
Art Meets Health
While the benefits of creating art are well documented, this study highlights the untapped potential of viewing art as a well-being resource. As art is already present in public and private spaces, it could be more intentionally used as a low-cost, accessible mental health tool. Policy-makers, educators, and healthcare providers are encouraged to consider these findings in the design of future spaces and programs. The RAARR guidelines will also support more rigorous and reproducible research moving forward.
The project is funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 ART*IS project.
Original Publication:
The Impact of Viewing Art on Well-being—A Systematic Review of the Evidence Base and Suggested Mechanisms. MacKenzie D. Trupp, Claire Howlin, Anna Fekete, Julian Kutsche, Joerg Fingerhut, Matthew Pelowski. In The Journal of Positive Psychology.
