Jo Reed: Welcome to Quick Study, the monthly podcast from the National Endowment for the Arts. This is where we'll share stats and stories to help us better understand the value of art in everyday life. I'm copiloting Quick Study with Sunil Iyengar. He is the director of research and analysis here at the arts endowment. Hey, Sunil.
Sunil Iyengar: Hi, Jo.
Jo Reed: So what are we discussing today?
Sunil Iyengar: Well, today I'd like to talk about an article that was published by one of our NEA research labs-- this is a team at the University of Pennsylvania-- in the Journal of Positive Psychology.
Jo Reed: Okay. What is positive psychology?
Sunil Iyengar: So it's a branch of psychological research and therapy that was popularized by Marty Seligman and the late Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, among others, and it uses constructs built around quality of life, specifically the notion of what it means to thrive or to flourish as gauged by subjective wellbeing reports and other measures. Jo, you can think of that old jazz standard, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" by Harold Arlen.
Jo Reed: "Eliminate the Negative." Yes.
Sunil Iyengar: Exactly, by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. So at first, I know it can sound kind of fuzzy, but the idea is to move away from using psychology exclusively to diagnose and treat mental illnesses but instead to focus on strengths, that is, to learn how to cultivate positive life experiences and mindsets through different competencies that can be studied and trained.
Jo Reed: Okay. So what his this to do with the arts?
Sunil Iyengar: As it happens, several ideas from positive psychology, like flow, you may have heard of, which was pioneered by Dr. Czikszentmihalyi, and measures of happiness and subjective wellbeing, have made their way into psychological studies about the arts. After all, the benefits of the arts are notoriously difficult to measure. Some concepts from positive psychology, like empathy, positive affect, resilience, and grit, have been used to communicate the power and the glory of the arts, whether we mean attending arts performances or exhibits, mastering a particular art form or cultural tradition, or making art of one's own.
Jo Reed: Does the article in the "Journal of Positive Psychology" discuss the arts?
Sunil Iyengar: Oh, resoundingly, yes. It's called, in fact, "Art Museums as Instruments of Human Flourishing." This article is a roundup of many studies conducted over the years all pointing to the ability of art museums to do things, such as increase factors associated with wellbeing, including promoting a greater sense of belonging. The studies also describe how museum visits can reduce factors associated with what researchers call illbeing and even help combat depression. So the researchers tagged some studies that have shown how museum visits serve a stress response strategy, for example, in people living with dementia, where in the author's words, "Repeated art museum engagement involving both biweekly art viewing and art making for six weeks resulted in more dynamic cortisol responses." Now, cortisol is a stress hormone. The researchers also point to a study showing how museum activities, quote, "decreased emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in medical residents." These are medical students.
Jo Reed: That's extraordinary.
Sunil Iyengar: I was going to also add, if I could, Jo, the emotional wellbeing of older adults in particular has benefitted from art museum engagement, according to the authors of this review. The authors cite, quote, "increased feelings of cheerfulness," unquote, greater levels of feeling engaged, and perceptions among visitors of their time in the art museum as having been personally rewarding. Other plausible benefits for art museumgoers of all types in specific contexts is to extend the visitors' empathy and reflection around different societal topics or thinking about different populations.
Jo Reed: Okay. Well, given their impact on a range of people and situations, is it possible that museums can be used more intentionally to foster outcomes like this?
Sunil Iyengar: Yeah. That's exactly what this paper seeks to explore. As I've said, two groups that seem to have been served deliberately by art museums, from a health perspective, are older adults and people with dementia, and there are museum programs that focus on these groups. Meet Me at MOMA is one of these programs, but there are others. In such programs, the visitors may attend an art museum several times with their caregivers and be led through these experiences by trained art educators or art therapists. For these visitors, these activities can reduce social isolation or loneliness and instill a sense of greater social engagement and connectedness.
Jo Reed: So are the authors suggesting these programs be expanded?
Sunil Iyengar: Yes, in a way. The authors of this paper are advocating rigorous methods to integrate more closely with the museum-going experience, opportunities for what they call human flourishing. Now, they refer to a growing practice, one which I've alluded to actually, Jo, in one of our recent podcasts, called "Social Prescribing." This has been embraced by healthcare practitioners in some communities, notably in the UK, where they have an Arts on Prescription program. As the authors of this paper reflect, the program was linked with a 37 percent decline in primary care doctor visits and a 27 percent decline in hospital admissions. This is in the UK. The program is not exclusively about art museums, but the authors conclude that, quote, "Empirically examining methods to promote greater engagement and interest in visitors and developing best practices for social prescriptions to the art museum are essential for widespread success of these practices." So an example of the kind of research they hope will move the needle on this is, just to give you an example, the UPenn authors are conducting experiments with the Philadelphia Museum of Art using something they call a virtual art museum lab. They've also conducted a national survey of art museum professionals to examine their attitudes, strategies and practices and to learn the extent to which they currently their institutions as venues to promote wellbeing. So we'll be looking forward to their published findings.
Jo Reed: Oh, as do I. Sunil, thank you. This is so interesting. I'll speak to you next month.
Sunil Iyengar: That would be great, Jo.
Jo Reed: That was Sunil Iyengar. He's the director of research and analysis here at the National Endowment for the Arts. You've been listening to Quick Study. The music is "We are One," from Scott Holmes Music. It's licensed through Creative Commons. Until next month, I'm Josephine Reed. Thanks for listening.
