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Art Engagement Can Unite Societies Despite Differences -- Research

  • [아시아뉴스통신] Timothy Montales 기자
  • 송고시간 2018-11-09 17:51
  • 뉴스홈 > 국제
Photo by: horndesign via Pixabay
 

Art can be a catalyst for social, economic, cultural and political unity, a new research reveals.


According to the collaborative research between psychologists at the University of Kent and University of Lincoln in England, engagement with the arts can help societies counter economic, cultural, and political conflicts, and can help foster and maintain social cooperation.


The researchers compared the positive relationship between attendance and participation in arts, and prosociality (charitable giving and volunteering).


Based on the results, they found that participation in arts and attendance were “among the strongest predictors of charitable giving and volunteering,” and that engagement in the arts predicted prosociality "more strongly than a large set of demographic variables such as gender, individual resources such as personal income, core personality such as openness, and sports engagement."


Meanwhile, age and monthly savings had a larger effect on charitable-giving compared to arts engagement , while educational level and working hours had a larger effect on volunteering compared to arts engagement .


Professor Dominic Abrams of University of Kent’s School of Psychology and lead author on the research exclaimed his amazement that “regardless of people's age, education, employment and savings their engagement with the arts remained a stronger predictor of their prosociality than did any other variables.”


Meanwhile, Dr. Julie Van der Vyver from University of Lincoln said that “it is particularly impressive that people who engaged more with the arts two years earlier continue to show even greater prosociality now.”


The research concludes that investing in the arts creates a potential for “substantial social and economic gains” through “policies or investments that make the arts more widely available and ensure that access is not restricted only to the wealthy.”


Arts Council England's Director of Communication and Public Policy, Mags Patten, said that this valuable research “will be important reading for those already studying in this vital area, and it should encourage new studies of the social impact of the arts.”