Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T02:00:55.278Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Empathy as a guide for understanding the balancing of Distancing-Embracing with negative art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Gernot Gerger ,
Tomohiro Ishizu  and
Matthew Pelowski
Gernot Gerger
Affiliation:
Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria. gernot.gerger@univie.ac.atmatthew.pelowski@univie.ac.athttp://homepage.univie.ac.at/gernot.gerger/
Tomohiro Ishizu
Affiliation:
Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria. gernot.gerger@univie.ac.atmatthew.pelowski@univie.ac.athttp://homepage.univie.ac.at/gernot.gerger/ University College London, WC1E 6BT London, UK. t.ishizu@ucl.ac.uk
Matthew Pelowski
Affiliation:
Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria. gernot.gerger@univie.ac.atmatthew.pelowski@univie.ac.athttp://homepage.univie.ac.at/gernot.gerger/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We connect the Distancing-Embracing model to theoretical and empirical evidence regarding empathy, which raises questions about the ordering and modulation of distancing in particular. Namely, distancing may not be a binary, continuously on/off process. Rather we suggest that changes in distancing as actualized via the relation between the individual and art (e.g., through empathy) might be a useful avenue for further consideration.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e361
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baltes, F. R. & Miu, A. C. (2014) Emotions during live music performance: Links with individual differences in empathy, visual imagery, and mood. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain 24:58–65. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berlyne, D. E. (1970) Aesthetics and psychobiology. Appleton Century Crofts.Google Scholar
Burke, E. (1757) A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke.Google Scholar
Cupchik, G. C. & Wroblewski-Raya, V. (1998) Loneliness as a theme in painting. Visual Arts Research 24:65–71.Google Scholar
Derryberry, D. (1988) Emotional influences on evaluative judgments: Roles of arousal, attention, and spreading activation. Motivation and Emotion 12:23–55. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00992471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eerola, T., Vuoskoski, J. & Kautiainen, H. (2016) Being moved by unfamiliar sad music is associated with high empathy. Frontiers in Psychology 7:1176. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garrido, S. & Schubert, E. (2011) Individual differences in the enjoyment of negative emotion in music: A literature review and experiment. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 28(3):279–96. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2011.28.3.279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerger, G., Pelowski, M., & Leder, H. (2017). Erratum to: Empathy, Einfühlung, and aesthetic experience: The effect of emotion contagion on appreciation of representational and abstract art using fEMG and SCR. Cognitive Processing. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-017-0807-8.Google Scholar
Gernot, G., Pelowski, M. & Leder, H. (2017) Empathy, Einfühlung, and aesthetic experience: The effect of emotion contagion on appreciation of representational and abstract art using fEMG and SCR. Cognitive Processing. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-017-0800-2.Google ScholarPubMed
Hanich, J., Wagner, V., Shah, M., Jacobsen, T. & Menninghaus, W. (2014) Why we like to watch sad films: The pleasure of being moved in aesthetic experiences. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 8(2):130–43. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037/a0035690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishizu, T. & Zeki, S. (2014) A neurobiological enquiry into the origins of our experience of the sublime and beautiful. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8:891. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00891.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ishizu, T. & Zeki, S. (2017) The experience of beauty derived from sorrow. Human Brain Mapping 38(8):4185–200. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, I. (19631790) Kritik der Urteilskraft [Critique of Judgment]. Philipp Reclam. Available at: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/kritik-der-urteilskraft-3507/1.Google Scholar
Pelowski, M., Markey, P. S., Forster, M., Gerger, G. & Leder, H. (2017) Move me, astonish me … delight my eyes and brain: The Vienna integrated model of top-down and bottom-up processes in art perception (VIMAP) and corresponding affective, evaluative, and neurophysiological correlates. Physics of Life Reviews 21:80–125. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2017.02.003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pelowski, M., Markey, P. S., Lauring, J. O. & Leder, H. (2016) Visualizing the impact of art: An update and comparison of current psychological models of art experience. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10:160. Available at: http://doi.org/10.3339/fnhum2016.00160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singer, T. & Lamm, C. (2009) The social neuroscience of empathy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1156(1):81–96. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04418.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wassiliwizky, E., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T. & Menninghaus, W. (2015) Art-elicited chills indicate states of being moved. Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts 9(4):405–16. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar