Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 18(3), Jun 2024, 259-268; doi:10.1037/aca0000418
Empathy, or Einfühlung as it was originally coined, first entered the psychological lexicon when it was used to describe the embodiment of artistic emotive qualities. Based on the empirical aesthetics literature, we explored this construct in the framework of visual attention in conjunction with analyses of aesthetic engagement and interest. A visual search paradigm was employed to examine the preattentive prioritization of components of emotive visual artworks between individuals scoring high or low on a validated questionnaire of empathy. Reaction times were significantly faster across all artworks, and several specific locations were responded to faster by highly empathic individuals. High empathy was associated with an enriched aesthetic experience, indexed by aesthetic interest and emotional engagement, to the most emotive artwork of the set. Qualitative measures provided further insights into the qualities of the artworks that may account for the differences reported here. The findings further contribute to understanding the myriad of psychological variables that influence our experience of art. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)