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Jesse S.

Seese
Professor Armitage
PSYC 101 Honors
16 November 2014
Art in a Social Role
What is art has been asked for centuries, as artistic movements have come and gone in and out
of style. The question that needs to be asked instead, though, is Why is there art? The answer lies in the
statement that art, an integral part of human society, exists in all cultural groups around the world. Art
influences people, aesthetically, psychologically, emotionally, and rationally. The visual arts in particular
reflect the power of this medium. Ten research studies illustrate theories and processes that contribute to
visual arts integral relationship with social aspects. Visual art serves a social need by influencing an
individuals thinking processes, identity formation, and relationship- building.
Social Role
By understanding the evolutionary origins of aesthetic appreciation, it can be better understood
how art has developed a social role for humans. Brown, Gao, Tisdelle, Eickhoff, and Liotti ( 2011)
conducted a meta- analysis using 93 published neuroimaging studies to examine the parts of the brain that
are active in aesthetic processing, and determine if these are the same areas that was also active in object
appraisal processing. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the strongest center of activation during object
appraisal processing, was hypothesized to be the part of the brain associated with aesthetic processing.
The results show, though there was a significant overlap in the region of the brain that handles aesthetic
processing and object appraisal processing. This means that the OFC was active in aesthetic processing,
but the right anterior insula was the center of highest activation.
This information implies that aesthetic experience did not develop independently, but evolved
from object appraisal process, a generic cognitive process that evaluates stimuli based on usefulness. For
example, the positive appraisal of an apple is due to its practical use of satisfying hunger, the positive
appraisal of scissors is due to its practical use as a tool. However, art is collected, put on a pedestal

(literally and metaphorically), separated from normal everyday objects, and given significant value even
though it serves no practical purposes, or satisfies practical needs. This begs the question what need,
does art fulfill? As humans evolved, aesthetics evolved as well, changing from a means of evaluating
objects in terms of survival to evaluating objects for social needs. This is supported by the involvement of
the right anterior insula, which is "...critically involved in social cognition and empathy, and,
subjective experience of emotions. (Brown, et al. 2011) This theory, explains arts involvement in
social aspects, such as religion and shared aesthetic experience.
Ambiguity
Ambiguity in visual art, defined by Flexas et al. as the quality of a stimulus to have more than one
possible interpretation, may also be explained from an evolutionary standpoint. (2013) Jakesch, Leder,
and Forster, (2013), conducted a study to investigate the role of ambiguity in the aesthetic appreciation of
art. This study used different sample groups for three different experiments to test how fluency,
(presentation duration), and ambiguity affect aesthetic judgment of visual art. In order to create a
comparable ambiguous and non-ambiguous pair of images, 36 ambiguous surrealistic images by Rene
Magritte were selected, then, edited to remove the ambiguous features. The experiment was conducted in
three parts. In the first part, the participants were shown the 36 pairs of images for varying presentation
durations; 10 ms, 50 ms, 100 ms, or 500 ms; then asked if the image was ambiguous or not. In the second
part, the participants reaction time to identify ambiguous art was tested, so instead of a fixed presentation
time, the image was removed as soon as the participants identified it as ambiguous or not. In the last part,
the stimuli were presented for very specific presentation durations, and then the participants were asked to
rate the images on how they liked it, how interesting it was, and how easy it was to perceive the picture.
The results concluded that at 10 ms, the participants were able to score an above-chance level of
identifying work as ambiguous or non-ambiguous, and the accuracy increased with presentation duration.
Regardless of viewing time, the participants liked ambiguous art more and scores continued to increase
with longer presentation duration, contrary to non- ambiguous art, which did not continue to increase after
a certain viewing time. Ambiguity did not impede the participants ability to classify the artworks.

Conversely, it was found that participants significantly enjoyed ambiguous artwork to non-ambiguous
artwork, despite the increasing difficulty of processing it.
Jakesch, et al. postulates two ideas regarding ambiguity as important and enjoyable features in
visual art: ambiguous aspects in art increase its complexity, retaining interest and enjoyment; and
ambiguity may be an evolutionary attribute of art. Outside of an artistic context, ambiguity is usually
perceived negatively. The safe context of resolving ambiguity in art, contrary to ambiguity in other life
situations, gives the opportunity for people to improve and exercise their problem-solving skills that can
be applied to ambiguity in real-life situations. (2013)
Three other studies by Roald; Belke, Leder, and Augustin; and Sbriscia- Fioretti, Berchio,
Freedberg, Gallese, and Umilta elaborate on how ambiguity in art is able to full fill a social need, while
still holding true to the theory of ambiguity put forth by Jakesch et al. When the artist is creating art,
unconscious goals and intentions are transmitted into the art. (Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. 2013) Ambiguous art
can transport these ideas to the viewer by manipulating the viewers psychological processes through
abstract, non - representational use of artistic elements. This requires the viewer to invest more mentally
to understand the art. (Belke et al. 2006) The increased brain activity that is involved in processing
abstract art may be why it can transport ideas.
A similar idea is expressed by Roald in his experiment. An artist is able to use ambiguity to
capture concepts that would otherwise be difficult to do so. Ambiguity has the ability to encompass the
uncertain and poorly defined, present it to the viewer for them to interpret, and develop a new perception
of that which was unclear. (2008) In this way, ambiguity in art allows people to mentally work out and
better understand ambiguous features in real life, by having them presented in a way that encourages
engagement with ambiguous concepts. These studies help to explain some overall theories of why art has
evolved. Other studies have helped to explain some of the psychological processes that take place when
viewing visual art, which help to support these theories.
Stylistic Processing
Visual art fulfills a social need, serves as a form of social interaction between artist and viewer,

where both participants contribute to form the aesthetic experience. Stylistic processing, which is a
contribution by the artist, is how the viewer perceives an artists specific style, similar to reading the
artist's handwriting. A study by Belke et al. (2006) used 50 undergraduate psychology students to
investigate how stylistic processing affects viewer's aesthetic appreciation for visual art. Three paintings,
with a consistent identifiable style, were selected from 12 different contemporary abstract artists with
distinguishable styles. The 36 total paintings were divided into three groups of 12, each containing one
painting from each artist. The three groups were then subdivided into the experimental group; which was
presented with additional stylistic information including descriptions of the artist's technique, the tools
and medium used main compositional elements, and distinctive stylistic features; and the control group.
Upon analysis of the results, additional stylistic information increased aesthetic appreciation for
viewers with minimal art expertise and in a positive affective state. The additional information did not
cause participants with a higher level of art expertise to decrease their ratings of liking for the paintings in
the experimental group. However, they did not have the same increase in appreciation, as seen in the
participants with minimal art expertise, partly due to initially higher rating of aesthetic appreciation for
paintings in the controlled group. In addition, the PANAS test revealed that the experimental conditions
correlated with a higher positive affect in the viewers in contrast to the control group, which had no
change in emotional state.
This study demonstrated that the way the artist renders a specific style has a psychological effect
on the viewer and the successful mastery and understanding of ambiguous art. The additional stylistic
information presented in the experimental group of paintings, would have aided viewers in better
mastering the new examples of the same painting styles, and so would have found it more aesthetically
pleasing. This means that the style of different artists would not affect a viewer in the same exact way, so
the experience between the viewer and that artist is unique. The rewarding aspect of viewing and
understanding art has been investigated in other studies. Jakesch et al. found similar results; ambiguous
art received higher ratings of liking, interest, and appreciation than did art of other sorts. This study
further perpetuates the notion that evaluating ambiguous art is a self-rewarding experience.

Rewarding Experience
The studies by Brown et al. in 2011 and Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. in 2013 found more definitive
explanations for this rewarding process. Appraising art objects elicits different feelings of pleasure and
reward, because of the increased activation of reward brain circuits, as opposed to, the appraisal of nonart objects. (Brown et al. 2011; Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. 2013) However, Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. showed this
area of the brain became more active, hence more rewarding, with increased mental involvement when
viewing the art. (2013) Findings on the self- rewarding aspects of art support the theories of art serving a
social role. The pleasure experienced when viewing and understanding art propitiate individuals to engage
with art as a viewer, or create art as an artist. Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. also found mental engagement
facilitates other important interactions with art.
Mirroring Brain Activation
In 2013, Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. also conducted an experiment on stylistically related processing;
however, they focused on how the style affected the viewers brain activation. This study used 11 female
and 10 male participants with no prior art expertise, to assess if and how the visual hand gestures seen in
artwork, referring to the visible brushstrokes, elicit any involvement of the sensorimotor cortex circuits of
the viewer. The researchers hypothesized that a painterly style would activate the sensorimotor cortex of
the viewer similarly to that of the artist when creating the observed brushstrokes. The two groups of
images, the painterly and non-painterly images, were created by using three abstract black and white
paintings by Franz Kline, then modifying them to remove visible brushstrokes. The experiment was
conducted individually in two sessions. In the first session, the participants were shown 90 stimuli for one
second each, 15 presentations of each of the six images, while being monitored by an EEG machine to
record their brain activity. In the second session, the participants were shown the six images again and
asked to fill out questions concerning the individual images familiarity, aesthetic appraisal, amount of
movement, and artistic nature of the perceived image.
Analysis of the results reveals the passive observation of painterly art elicited significantly higher
brain activation in the viewer, similar to that of the artist when creating the art, in contrast to the modified

stimuli. Some of these areas of activation are strongly associated with reward brain circuits, which may
explain why the painterly art received higher scores of aesthetic liking in comparison to the modified
stimuli. This study shows that a connection can be made between the artist and the viewer just simply by
looking at a painting. With this understanding, it can be postulated that one aspect that makes art a social
aspect is the artists ability to activate the beholders brain in a similar manner to his or her own. This
mirroring effect of brain activity can create a very important and powerful emotional response when
viewing art.
Empathetic Response
In experiments, both Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. and Brown et al. found possible explanations for the
empathic response formed by viewing visual art. The results of Sbriscia- Fioretti et al. support the
embodied simulation theory, during art perception an empathetic relationship is established between
the beholder and the artwork, Which may be explained by the same regions of activation in the brain,
both when executing the action and when experiencing it. This mirroring effect in brain activity causes an
empathetic response between the viewer and the art they are viewing. (2013) Brown et al. postulate that
these responses may have to do with the portion of the brain that is being activated in art -appraisal. As
stated before, the right anterior insula is, critically involved in social cognition and empathy, and is
the most active area of the brain when viewing art. What this study suggests is because the human brain
has evolved to distinguish between the interpretation of art objects and regular objects, higher emotional
processing centers of the brain are also involved, which account for the empathetic responses to visual art.
(2011) This type of psychological process can explain how, as Roald more poetically stated, art opens up
to the viewer and is like a horizon for the viewer and for the artist. The connection made between the
viewer and the art through empathy, stated by both theories, is important in explaining the social role of
art. In addition, there are also factors about the viewer that affect this experience.
Perceptual Style
Perceptual style is a psychological process that occurs in the viewer that affects aesthetic
experience, but is not directly caused by the artist. Perceptual style is defined as how an individual

processes perceptual features, which can be characterized as either local or global. With a local perceptual
style visual stimuli can be easily perceived independently from the surrounding context, contrary to
global perceptual style where context is very influential because is cannot be easily separated from the
stimuli. (Boccia, Barbetti, Margiotta, Guariglia, Ferlazzo, & Giannini, 2014) Fifty participants were used
to examine how individual perceptual style, gender, and age affect the aesthetic experience of ambiguous
art. Out of 80 original participants, 50 were selected to participate in the study because with the results of
the Navon task, which was used to determine global or local perceptual style, with the researchers
eliminating participants who did not clearly fall into one category. These 50 participants were shown 32
ambiguous portraits by Arcimboldo and 32 realistic Renaissance portraits, and asked to rate the images on
ambiguity and pleasantness.
The results of Boccia et al. show that age, gender, and perceptual style, all play a role in the
aesthetic experience of ambiguous art. The most influential factor was perceptual style, since people with
a local perceptual style interpreted Arcimboldos portraits as being more ambiguous, and as being more
pleasing. Analyzing the results of the Renaissance portraits revealed that there were no discernible
differences between the ratings across the three groups. This study shows that psychological processes,
such as perceptual style, and personal characteristics, such as age and gender, play almost an equally
important role in shaping the understanding and experience of art in conjunction with the art itself. The
shared aesthetic experience with art is shaped by the artist and by the viewer, which accounts for the
differences in aesthetic experiences.
Context
Brieber, Nadal, Leder, and Rosenberg conducted an experiment to inquire regarding context when
viewing art. This study used 44 psychology students, with no prior art expertise, ranging from age 18 to
31 to examine how the context in which art is viewed affects the viewing time and experience with the
art. Participants were separated into two groups; one viewed the art in a museum and the other in a
laboratory. The participants freely viewed 14 selected photographs from an art exhibit while wearing a
mobile eye tracker, which recorded what they viewed and for how long, then they filled out a

questionnaire that evaluated their appreciation, understanding, and perceived ambiguity of the art.
Upon analysis of the results, it was found that the context strongly affected ratings of
appreciation, slightly influenced ratings of understanding, and had no effects on ratings of ambiguity. The
museum group reported higher ratings of appreciation and understanding and, in accordance with those
scores, viewed the art for longer. Context did not affect ratings of ambiguity between the two groups;
however, it did affect behavior. In the museum setting, art that was rated as more ambiguous received
higher scores of appreciation and was viewed for longer, contrary to ambiguous art presented in the
laboratory that received shorter looks and lower scores of appreciation.
The context art is viewed in may influence the aspects of aesthetic experience that is more closely
related to emotion; which may explain why it had the greatest influence on appreciation, the emotional
processing of art. (Brieber et al. 2014) This strikes a commentary with the statement made by Brown et al.
about why art is gathered and separated from other objects. Art may be set aside so its context fosters an
aesthetic mindset, encouraging more thorough engagement with art and creating a more rewarding
experience.
Affective State
Another aspect that can lead to differences in aesthetic experience is the affective state of the
viewer. The work of Flexas et al. in 2013 tried to see how affective primes, in the form of facial
expressions, influenced viewers experience with art. This study used 61 volunteers to investigate how
affective state of the viewer influences aesthetic appreciation for art by using facial expressions;
happiness, disgust, and neutral; as affective primes. 96 target stimuli were created by pairing a facial
prime with a painting under two viewing conditions of the prime, optimal 300ms and suboptimal 20ms.
The paintings were created by cropping six abstract paintings into eight portions each. The facial primes
consisted of eight examples of the three emotions that were randomly selected to represent male, female,
Caucasian, and Latino models equally. The experiment was conducted in three blocks. In the first block,
the participants were shown all 96 trials and rated how much they liked each painting after seeing it. The
second block was the same as the first except after; the participants were given a questionnaire that asked

if they were aware that there were facial primes before the paintings. In the third block, the participants
were only shown the suboptimal condition trials and after rating how much they liked the painting, they
were also asked to identify either the facial expression or the model of the prime.
The results of this study show that the facial primes that preceded the paintings did have a
significant effect on the evaluation of those paintings. Paintings that were primed with happiness received
significantly higher ratings of aesthetic liking under both viewing conditions. Images that were primed
with disgust had a lower rating of aesthetic liking, compared to neutral primes, only under the optimal
conditions; however, the effect remained significantly longer than the effect of priming with happiness.
The short term, and unconscious, experiences of the viewer plays a role in shaping aesthetic appreciation
for visual art, by altering the affective state of the viewer. The importance of this study involved the
viewer as an active agent in shaping the aesthetic experience formed between them and visual art, because
affective state can be influenced by an inexhaustible number of factors, including context. Both Brieber et
al. and Flexas et al. show how outside forces can psychologically influence a viewer and play a role in
manipulating their aesthetic experience.
Viewers Prior Experience
In the course of experimentation, Belke et al. found that art expertise played a significant role in
how participants viewed and interpreted art. People with a higher level of art expertise had initially higher
ratings of liking for the art, while people with less art expertise needed additional information to enjoy the
art. Boccia et al. incorporated as part of their experiment personal characteristics age and gender. These
characteristics did have an effect in shaping the aesthetic experience of the viewers. This shows that the
viewers prior experience, expertise and personal characteristics affected how they interacted with the art.
Real Life Examples
Specific examples can help illustrate how these processes come together to enable art to fulfill a
social role. The work by Britt- Maj is an example of how these psychological processes come in to play,
for an artist. Twenty-two hospitalized children between the ages of six and nine were followed over the
course of three years to investigate how hospitalized children used expressive art materials, and the

emotional content the children put into these objects. This experiment was conducted as a case study of
each child as they visited a play therapy unit during their hospital stays. The interpretation of the therapy
sessions was conducted by a team of researchers, in order to ensure the interpretation of the psychological
meaning was mutually agreed-upon.
Hospitalized children used art materials in play therapy to express three major emotional themes:
fear, powerlessness, and longing. An eight-year-old girl with anorexia created a textile that depicted her
floating on a boat at sea with no oars to express her struggle with powerlessness. Over the course of six
weeks, as she gained control of her eating disorder she began to embroider small oars on the boat,
explaining to the therapist that she felt she was gaining control of her situation. A six-year-old boy with
leukemia expressed his struggle with fear and anxiety by creating masks that he wore during his
procedures and treatments. The first mask was hard and covered his entire face, but as he continued to
visit the play therapy unit, his final mask was made of a soft material that only covered a small area
around his nose and eyes. He told the play therapists that he wore the masks during his procedures
because they made him feel less scared and protected him.
The children used symbolic art as a way to express the overarching complex emotional themes
arising from being hospitalized. This process is in accordance with the theories of Sbriscia- Fioretti et al.
and Brown et al. The artistic choses of the children did convey a message, which facilitated the
communication between the children and the therapist. In addition, the therapist was able to better
understand the child's emotions, which reflects the ideas of empathy. The discussion the art facilitated
between the therapist and the children allowed the children to verbally express themselves in a way that
they may not otherwise have been able to. In this way art acted as a mode of communication both
symbolically, the content the children put into the art, and verbally, by acting as the agent of conversation
between the therapist and the child. The culmination of these processes does support the theory that art
has evolved to satisfy social need.
Analogous to the previous study, Lim (2012) also used art in a therapeutic setting, but focused on
the viewer. The intent of this study was to investigate the common emotions shared by five Asian

immigrant women holding F-2 visas, by allowing them to articulate their complex feelings through
empathetic responses to visual art. This was conducted as a case study over the course of seven months
with seven specifically selected images. These images were selected to elicit conversations of: the
participants feelings of the US separately and in comparison to their homeland, how their sense of
loneliness was reflected in interpretation of the paintings, views of western society in general, and
interpretation of themselves in American society.
Using art in these interviews was incredibly successful. The women were not confident in
expressing opinions about the art because they felt they were not knowledgeable enough. However, by
filtering the images through their own life experiences they were able to critique and understand the
artworks in profound depth. An example of this is one of the women's interpretations of Le Moulin de la
Galette by Renoir, this woman seems to make her own space. I dont want to count on my husband,
even though I followed him [here]. I want to build my own life and space wherever I am. (Lim, 2012)
Filtering this image through her own experiences, the woman was able to reflect on her own life and
situation as a dependent of her husband.
When stating preferences among the art all of the women had a positive response to the images
from their home country, however, it was not always the preferred work, "Although Hong-do Kim's art
feels like mine, the situation is not similar to my own life. But the second and third images show women
like me, and I found myself and my current emotions and situations in the second and third images. I can
see myself reflected in them. (Lim, 2012) The women had an emphatic response that enabled them to
externalize their complex emotions, and apply the paintings to their social condition and experience.
Finally, the women experienced a rewarding process by engaging with the art. A woman stated
the subjects of one of the paintings looked lonely, then said, "But no... Maybe Im lonely... But maybe I'm
lonely so I keep finding that [loneliness] in these [the visual images]." After stating she was lonely, she
said she felt better. This example shows full circle how the empathic response allowed for personal
refection on social the situation which then caused a self- rewarding experience.
Conclusion

Theories presented here help illuminate why art is important in human society. Art can act as a
mode of communication, or as a practice area for people to mentally work out ambiguity and become
more aware of aspects they did not previously understand. The ability for people to use art as expression
and to understand art from viewing it shows that visual art is fundamentally tied to other social processes.

References
Belke, B., Leder, H., Augustin, D. M. (2006). Mastering style - Effects of explicit style-related
information, art knowledge and affective state on appreciation of abstract paintings. Psychology
Science, 48, 115- 134. Retrieved from http://libproxy.howardcc.edu/login?url
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Boccia, M., Barbetti, S., Margiotta, R., Guariglia, C., Ferlazzo, F., Giannini, A. M. (2014). Why
do you like Arcimboldos portraits? Effect of perceptual style on aesthetic appreciation of
ambiguous artworks. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 76, 1516- 1521. Retrieved from
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Britt- Maj, W. (2005). Communicating via expressive arts: The natural medium of selfexpression for hospitalized children. Pediatric Nursing, 31, 480- 485. Retrieved from
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Jakesch, M., Leder, H., Forster, M. (2013). Image ambiguity and fluency: e74084. PLoS One, 8.
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