Emotional Intelligence and Understanding the Conveyance of Emotions Through Visual Art.

Abstract

Understanding art involves psychological processes and involves a variety of factors. The present study explores the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and understanding the emotions conveyed through art. Three artworks were created by three artists, who completed EI, empathy and Openness to Art measures. Also, the artists completed emotion inventories to indicate the emotions experienced while creating the art and the emotions they intend the viewers to feel when viewing the artwork. Participants viewed three different visual artworks, indicated the emotions the experienced and the emotions they think the artist intended for them to experiences, as well as the same EI, empathy and Openness to Art measures. To measure accuracy of emotional understanding, the viewers’ responses and artists’ were compared to calculate the discrepancy between the two. For one artwork, viewers with higher total EI, as well as higher scores on the subscales of well-being, self-control and sociability were more accurate in guessing the intended emotions. A relationship between total EI and experienced emotion accuracy was found as well. One facet of the empathy scale, personal distress, was related to less accuracy overall. No significant results were found for the other two artworks. Thus, EI is related to accuracy in art viewing in some instances, such as when there are written cues or the artist has more artistic expertise.