USING ART FOR COMPARISON AND DISTRACTION - EFFECTS ON NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND JUDGMENTS OF SATISFACTION

Two studies examined whether emotional comparison and distraction with emotion congruent and incongruent art would improve the well-being of dysphoric undergraduates. In both studies, subjects: (1) imagined a s ad event; (2) compared their mood to that expressed by incongruent art (upward comparison) or congruent art (downward comparison); or focuse d on technical features of incongruent art (incongruent distraction) o r congruent art (congruent distraction); and (3) rated their emotions and life satisfaction. The incongruent distraction group reported feel ing more positive and more satisfied, and the downward comparison grou p reported feeling more satisfied, than the upward comparison or congr uent distraction groups. Thus, comparison and distraction can improve well-being when directed towards emotion congruent and incongruent art , respectively.