Can visiting an art museum reduce stress?

Some people love to visit art museums. Others go one step further and collect beautiful pieces with no clear purpose beyond the act of collecting itself. from the caverns, human beings followed the call of their own creativity and they reflected on stone, parchment or paper reality or imagination, forever recording beautiful compositions that could drive others crazy.

But beyond the pleasure that comes from seeing a work of Tiziano, PIcasso or Modigliani in a museum, is there really something beneficial in it? Well, it seems that the answer is positive, according to recent research, which has decided to investigate the psychological and physiological benefits of museum visitors.

First one was done, and the second duplicated it 13 years later, which is interesting because it was possible to determine if the results of the first had been reproduced in the second, which provided a good approach to verify data. In the first (Clow and Fredhoi, 2006), Questioned subjects reported stress and arousal levels, and salivary cortisol was recorded before and after visiting the museum. The same approach was repeated in the later study of Ter-Kazarian and Luke (2019). “Stress levels” refer to a general sense of well-being related to what is pleasant or unpleasant. “Arousal” implies feelings of wakefulness versus sleepiness. Salivary cortisol levels are used as a physiological indicator of stress, reports ‘Psychology Today’.

Their self-reported stress level was reduced by 72%, while their self-reported arousal level was reduced by 28%

Clow and Fredhoi did the study with 28 city workers (half men, half women) who visited a major art institution in London (the Guildhall Art Gallery) during their lunch hour. Their stress was reduced by 45% after the visit, while their self-reported arousal was unchanged. Their salivary cortisol levels decreased.

Ter-Kazarian and Luke (2019) examined 31 local professionals (21 women; 10 men) who visited the Bellevue Museum of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, during their lunch hour. Their self-reported stress level was reduced by 72%, while their self-reported level of arousal dropped by 28%. His salivary cortisol was unchanged.

Although the results of the two studies demonstrate a drop in self-reported stress levels related to with a visit to a museum during lunchtime, self-reported arousal and salivary cortisols were not correlated. There are many factors that can contribute to this disparity. What is clear, beyond the drop in self-reported stress during both museum visits, is that further study is needed to clarify the disparities found in self-reported arousal and physiological measurements of salivary cortisol.

another approach

In yet another study (Mastandrea et al., 2019), blood pressure and heart rate were assessed in healthy young women before and after three different visits to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. During one visit, they saw figurative art; during another, modern art; and during the third, the museum office. The latter was designated as a ‘control visit’.

During the figurative art visit, the participants’ systolic blood pressure (the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats) decreased. This is considered an indication of stress reduction, as stress is known to increase blood pressure. There were no changes in heart rate or diastolic blood pressure (the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats). It was curious that the subjects liked the similarity of both types of art (figurative and modern), but it was only the figurative that lowered systolic blood pressure.

In conclusion, there seem to be benefits beyond the stimulation of the center of pleasure when viewing art. Although not definitively cleared up, science definitely has a start in this exciting and cutting-edge area.

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Some people love to visit art museums. Others go one step further and collect beautiful pieces with no clear purpose beyond the act of collecting itself. from the caverns, human beings followed the call of their own creativity and they reflected on stone, parchment or paper reality or imagination, forever recording beautiful compositions that could drive others crazy.

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