How To Feel The Benefits Of Art, According To Psychologists Artsy

A growing body of research is giving new weight to an old intuition: time spent with art may support both mental and physical health. Studies cited by psychologists working in the field suggest that viewing art can ease symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, while also strengthening cognitive functioning and social skills. The question now is less whether art matters than how to engage with it most meaningfully.

Dr. Matthew Pelowski, an associate professor in Psychology of Cognitive and Neuroaesthetics at the University of Vienna, argues that there is no single correct way to respond to a work.“There is no optimal or 'correct' way to view art or to feel or respond to a particular artwork,” he said.“How you respond is unique to you and your feelings, thoughts, and actions.” He added that, at basic psychological and physiological levels, many reactions are shared.

Pelowski founded the ART*IS Lab in 2020 to study art's role as a force that can shape beliefs, behavior, health, and the body. Elsewhere, researchers are testing those ideas in more specific clinical settings. At the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, the Art Inquiry Lab is developing a receptive arts engagement program for people living with Parkinson's disease, in collaboration with artistic coaches and museum partners including the Rijksmuseum, according to Dr. Blanca T.M. Spee, who leads the lab.

The work is not limited to traditional museum viewing. Dr. Ralf Cox, a professor of Psychology and Development of Aesthetics and Art Experiences at the University of Groningen, is part of the Interface for Measuring the Experience and Meaning of Art, or iMEMA, a research group that uses digital tools to measure artistic experience, including encounters with new media and digital art. For Cox, art is not just something to decode. It is something to inhabit.“Experiencing art is a fundamentally embodied and affective (and also social) sense-making process,” he said.“Artworks are invitations for 'engaging with' and for 'attuning to.'”

The psychologists' advice begins with restraint. Before interpreting a work, Spee recommends close looking: notice line, color, shape, texture, and composition, then register the emotional or bodily response that follows. Only after that should viewers turn to wall text or a press release. The sequence matters because it keeps the encounter grounded in direct experience rather than expectation.

From there, the next step is interpretation. Viewers can ask what themes, contexts, or visual choices may be shaping the work's meaning, and how light, color, or perspective contribute to its expressiveness. The most rewarding encounters, Spee said, often emerge from a back-and-forth between personal association and analysis.

The broader lesson is simple but useful: art may be most powerful when it is approached slowly, attentively, and, when possible, in the company of others. In that setting, looking becomes less passive than it first appears - and potentially more restorative.

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