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Visiting an art museum can have a host of health benefits. But what about virtual exhibitions? A team of European researchers recently looked into their therapeutic virtues and found that they are equivalent to those of “real” art.
While the idea of going to museums to take care of your health may come as a surprise, it is gaining ground more and more. And for good reason, many scientific publications have highlighted the multiple benefits of art on our well-being, both physical and mental. Contact with works of art can relieve chronic pain and reduce stress and anxiety.
However, scientists did not know if these effects could also be felt on the Internet. MacKenzie Trupp and Matthew Pelowski have looked into the matter, with the help of researchers from the Max Planck Institutes of Neurology and Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics. They asked 84 participants to visit two exhibitions digitized by Google Arts and Culture, one on Monet and the other on Japanese culinary traditions, during the first confinement linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, nearly 90% of the world’s museums had closed their doors for a more or less brief period, according to a 2020 UNESCO report. Millions of art lovers then turned to visits. virtual to cultivate and escape. Much good has done them, if we are to believe the study by MacKenzie Trupp and Matthew Pelowski. The researchers observed that people who visited a virtual exhibition saw their mood improve. “This includes a decrease in their state of anxiety, negative mood and feelings of loneliness, as well as an increase in their subjective well-being“, they wrote in their study, recently published in the journal Frontier Psychology.
Even more surprisingly, these therapeutic effects are felt very quickly. Psychologists have noticed that it is enough to look at digital works for a few minutes to feel better. The benefits of virtual exhibitions are even greater if the people who visit them have a particular attachment to art, or find it beautiful.
Although the study has a small number of participants, it suggests new perspectives for art therapy. Virtual exhibitions could be shown in the future in waiting rooms, hospitals and rural areas where access to art is limited. Enough to allow as many people as possible to be in good health thanks to art.