Psychological Examination of Positive and Negative Feelings that Art Inspires in People Simultaneously
摘要
Art appeals to people because of its beauty but can inspire awe. This suggests that art can induce both positive and negative emotions in people. In this study, we conducted a psychological experiment to verify that art appreciation has the potential to cause positive and negative emotions in people simultaneously. An immersive space was constructed in which images were projected onto the floor, and video art created by one of the authors was projected onto it. Then, twenty-seven subjects viewed and evaluated the art from three different positions. The results showed that differences in position had no effect on the results. Next, when the evaluation results by the evaluation items were compared, the nine evaluation items related to impressions were classified into two types: items that received high evaluation values and items that received low evaluation values. Furthermore, it was found that the items with high evaluation values were those related to evaluation as art, or in other words, “extraordinary pleasure.” In contrast, the items with low evaluation values were those related to the evaluation of ordinary pleasure and displeasure, or in other words, “everyday pleasure.” These results indicate that the art contents used in this experiment simultaneously give “unusual pleasant” and “every day unpleasant” feelings to people's minds.