In a world brimming with enigmas and wonders, the experience of awe should come about naturally for the young, explorative mind. However, in stark contrast to the burgeoning research on the nature, elicitors, and consequences of awe in adults, the scientific understanding of awe in younger populations is still in its infancy. The current project explores the onset, elicitors, and physiological and behavioral correlates of awe at young ages. Parents of 0-to-7-year-olds recalled their children’s first, most memorable, and most recent awe experiences (Study 1). They also reported on their children’s emotional reactions during the events of a regular day (Study 1) and an awe-inspiring day (Christmas; Study 2) using a daily diary method. We also observed infants’ and toddlers’ expressions in response to typical joy-, surprise-, and awe-eliciting events in naturalistic settings (Study 3) and the lab (Study 4). Preliminary results suggest that children as young as two years old express awe, indicating that the onset of awe is much earlier than previously thought. Children experience awe in response to events that have been previously documented to elicit awe in adults, but they also feel awe in response to a unique class of events that encompasses fictional characters. Children's expression of awe shares facial, bodily, and verbal features with other positive emotions, yet awe has its distinctive signals (prolonged gazing, stillness, and quietness), reflecting the appraisal of feeling transfixed/immersed. Understanding early awe experiences will allow harnessing its benefits for children’s cognitive and social development.

While art is often viewed as an intellectual pursuit for adults, infants and toddlers are instinctively drawn to it—they spontaneously dance to music, sing along, and fully engage in role-play and storytelling. Could early encounters with art influence something as fundamental as children’s drive to explore? Together with Carnegie Hall, we are conducting a field experiment to rigorously test whether art fosters exploratory behavior in 12-to-36-month-old children. Children are randomly assigned to attend a performing arts show or a matched non-art activity. Afterwards, they play with a novel toy and we observe their ability to explore the toy’s hidden functions. We are also assessing children’s physiological responses during the art or non-art show to examine whether emotion regulation enables the effect of art on exploration. Opening new territory, this project aims to uncover art’s unique role in early cognitive development.

Gender bias is pervasive in popular entertainment media such as movies. Male characters frequently feature in leading roles, whereas female characters are often marginalized to peripheral roles and portrayed in stereotypical ways (e.g., concerned about family and romance). Screen underrepresentation and stereotyping of women predict real-world gender inequalities, while counter-stereotypical media role models can reduce prejudice. But, do we like movies that place female characters at centre stage and portray them in counter-stereotypical ways? How can we promote the creation and endorsement of less gender-biased movies? We propose that greater representation of women behind the scenes (the creative team) will lead to less stereotyping, greater representation, and greater centrality of female characters on the screen. Furthermore, we expect cultural norms that foster tolerance for unconventional ideas (e.g., cultural looseness) to boost the creation and appeal of more gender-balanced movies. We merge data from different sources (scripts, subtitles, synopses, awards, nominations, movie ratings) to compute alternative measures of on-screen and behind-the-scenes gender bias to understand how gender bias in movies has historically developed and how it might have influenced real-world gender inequality trends over the last 100 years, as well as the viewers’ appreciation in current times. This project aspires to illuminate pathways toward a more inclusive gender-balanced film industry.

Female artists are heavily underrepresented in the art world and female characters in art are frequently portrayed in stereotypical ways. Are gender stereotypes in visual art a mere reflection or a powerful catalyst of real-world gender inequality? The current project aims to quantify the representation of female artists and the way female characters are portrayed in artworks to explore how gender stereotypes on the canvas affect gender inequality in real life. We compile a large collection of visual artworks spanning the history of art and many countries. We use computer vision techniques to assess different dimensions of stereotypical portrayals in artworks as reflected in characters’ social roles, environments, and emotional expressions. We use gender-inequality census data to explore how gender-typed portrayals of female characters might have affected the development of inequality in the real world.

The significance of art has often been debated. Is it a frivolous activity, or a profound experience that can alter the way that we relate to people? This paper suggests the latter, investigating how art can affect our attitudes towards immigrants. We contend that impactful art can evoke self-transcendent states in beholders, shifting their focus from the self towards others, thereby understanding them better. We find initial correlational support for our hypothesis in a Europe-wide dataset (Study 1). Participants who relived an impactful art experience (as opposed to an everyday experience unrelated to art) were then more likely to attribute more nuanced feeling states to immigrants– indicative of humanisation (Study 2). A similar pattern was found in a pre-registered replication study in which attitudes were, in addition, operationalised in terms of interpersonal closeness and using a petition. Lastly, we find initial support for self-transcendent emotions mediating the effect (Study 3).

Previous research on the effect of art engagement on social cognitive skills has yielded mixed results. While a recent meta-analysis suggested a small but significant positive effect (Dodell-Feder and Tamir, 2018), subsequent assessments of the effect have shown that this conclusion was not robust (Quinlan et al., 2022). One potential explanation for these inconsistencies is the heterogeneity across studies in the measures used to assess social cognitive skills. To enhance our understanding of the social (cognitive) effects of art engagement, we propose a distinction between performance-based and self-report measures for social cognitive skills. In the current research, we separately look at the effect of art engagement on actual and self-perceived social cognitive skills, and feelings of social connectedness. Additionally, we explore the association between long-term art engagement and these social outcomes, examining both causal and correlational links to gain a comprehensive understanding of the social impact of art, including the limitations of brief interventions. We conduct this investigation focusing on two artforms, literature and film, to determine their potential differential effects. To further explore this, we compare the two art forms on various dimensions of viewer engagement, including reflective thoughts, emotional responses, transportation, social engagement, and imagery, and how such differences may reflect on the focal social outcomes. We control for the content of the art engagement by using a literature excerpt and its film adaptation. 

People generally appreciate music less if they believe it is created by artificial intelligence (AI) rather than humans. However, these findings are based on self-reports, leaving it unclear whether they reflect superficial bias or embodied feelings of threat to human uniqueness. We tested this across two studies by measuring participants’ self-reported and physiological responses to the same music, framed as having either AI or human origins. A pilot study (N = 50 Dutch adults) revealed that individuals in the AI condition showed reduced appreciation, less intense emotions, and decreased parasympathetic nervous system activity. The main study (N = 372 Dutch adults) showed these effects were more pronounced among individuals with stronger beliefs about the uniqueness of human creativity and could largely be explained by perceived threat. These findings highlight the need for strategies tackling perceived threats posed by creative AI to foster more harmonious human-AI collaboration and acceptance.

What motivates professional artists to create art, and how do these motivations influence the audience in terms of their appreciation of the artist’s work? While previous research has highlighted the influence of contextual factors related to the artist on art appreciation, the role of their motives has received little attention. This is surprising given how frequently motive information is included in curatorial narratives and artists’ own statements about their work. The limited existing research has catalogued idiosyncratic motives but lacks a unified framework to systematically assess their impact. To address this gap, we conducted four studies using a mixed-methods approach. In Study 1, interviews with artists from diverse artistic disciplines (N = 34) identified 24 motives, which we categorised based on their origin, using the commonly applied distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motives. These motives were further subcategorised into self-focused and other-focused motives based on their target/beneficiary, ultimately resulting in a four-cluster taxonomy. In Studies 2 (N = 390) and 3 (N = 384; pre-registered replication), we experimentally manipulated motive information as per the four clusters and found support for our hypothesis that intrinsic motives lead to higher appreciation than extrinsic ones, affecting social perceptions of the artist, aesthetic evaluations, and perceived artistic impact. In Study 4, a two-wave survey with professional artists (N = 135) over two years, intrinsic motives predicted long-term appreciation in the form of aesthetic evaluations and perceived artistic impact. Overall, our findings reveal that artists’ motives have notable effects on how their work is received.