Art-based Beauty Appreciation Intervention

The goals of the intervention program are to help individuals develop an aesthetic mindset, practice observation and appreciation skills, learn how to apply these skills to their day-to-day lives, practice emotion regulation with beauty, and incorporate more beauty into their lives. The program is designed to create a slow skill transfer from appreciation in art contexts to natural beauty and to everyday life. In the 14-day program, participants visit an art museum with guided audio, watch instructional videos about observing and appreciating beauty, and complete daily written or photo beauty journals that document the beauty they see. In addition, participants will watch video art showing how to find beauty in mundane objects, practice this in a beauty walk, and complete a planning session to include more beauty in their lives.

The active, matched control group will focus on developing pragmatic observation skills. Participants will be instructed to pay attention to and identify objects and elements in their surroundings without emphasizing their aesthetic value. For example, they should pay attention and count objects of the same colour they encounter, social behaviour, the people they pass on the street, or the types of buildings. The 14-day program includes a tourist trip with guided audio instruction, watching instructional videos about increasing observation skills and completing daily written or photo journals to document their observations. Further, participants will take an observation walk and plan to include more observation in their lives.