Implicit emotion regulation in the context of viewing artworks: ERP evidence in response to pleasant and unpleasant pictures

Abstract

Presenting affective pictures as a work of art could change perceivers' judgment and strength in emotional reactions. Aesthetic theory states that perceivers of art emotionally distance themselves, allowing them to appreciate works of art depicting gruesome events. To examine whether implicit emotion regulation is induced by an art context, we assessed whether presenting pleasant and unpleasant IAPS pictures as either "works of art comprising paintings, digital renderings, and photographs of staged scenes" or "photographs depicting real events" modulated perceivers' Late Positive Potentials (LPP) and likability ratings. In line with previous research and aesthetic theory, participants evaluated the IAPS pictures as more likable when they were presented as works of art than when they were presented as photographs. Moreover, participants' late LPP amplitudes (600-900ms post picture onset) in response to the pictures were attenuated in the art context condition. These results provide evidence for an implicit emotion regulation induced by the art context.

Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum

“…the case for studies explicitly instructing participants to decrease or increase elicited emotions (Hajcak and Nieuwenhuis 2006; Krompinger et al 2008; Moser et al 2006; Schönfelder et al 2014), and for studies inducing a non-affective instead of an affective context (Dennis and Hajcak 2009; Hajcak et al 2006). Another example is formed by a study using a more ecologically valid design, showing that LPP amplitudes of unpleasant images are attenuated when participants think the images were depicting art as compared to real scenes (Van Dongen et al 2016). However, using a non-valence-changing paradigm does not guarantee successful LPP modulation.…”

Conscious and Non-Conscious Measures of Emotion: Do They Vary with Frequency of Pornography Use?

“…The IAPS is a standardised collection of around 1000 images which depicts people, places, objects, and events and is used widely in emotion research, e.g., [56]. For the purposes of the current study, images were categorised into one of five categories: Violent, Erotic, Pleasant, Unpleasant, and Neutral, with 30 images in each group.…”

Art as emotional exploration

“…However, these studies did not specifically investigate the role of an art versus non-art framing, but of other mental framings. Finally, a recent electroencephalography study (Van Dongen et al 2016) yielded neuroscientific evidence for implicit emotion regulation activated through an art framing.…”

“…Specifically, we believe that there may be an interesting extension of the authors' model to the use of stories for prosocial ends. Previous research suggests that individuals regularly learn and generalize from fictional stories (for reviews, see Slater 2002;van Laer et al 2014). A possible implication of the Distancing-Embracing model is that fictional stories may be particularly useful in cases where true stories about challenging topics might evoke an overwhelming amount of negative emotion for readers or viewers.…”

“…Menninghaus et al suggest that activation of the concepts <art> and <fiction> causes emotional distancing, a hypothesis that is both widely accepted in aesthetic philosophy (Kantian "disinterestedness"; see Stolnitz [1961]) and experimentally demonstrable (Gerger et al 2014;Mocaiber et al 2010;2011a;2011b;Van Dongen et al 2016;Wagner et al 2014). But their claim that <fiction> can be "activated far beyond the confines of art" (sect.…”