The impact of viewing art on well-being—a systematic review of the evidence base and suggested mechanisms

Art viewing is increasingly seen as having benefits for well-being. Despite this, evidence is scattered, and the siloed nature of past research stunts our mechanistic understanding. To address this, we systematically reviewed (CRD42022296890) the evidence of the effects of art viewing on well-being, summarised the characteristics of art viewing experiences, study designs, and results, and thematically analysed suggested mechanisms. CINAHL, EBSCOhost, Scopus, and PubMed were searched, 3893 abstracts were screened, and 38 papers were included (N = 6805 participants). Quantitative synthesis revealed a diversity of settings, schedules, activities, and outcomes. Thematic analysis revealed affective, cognitive, social, self-transformative, and resilience-building mechanisms that were often context-dependent. While convergent evidence exists for eudemonic well-being, we found no strong support for other well-being outcomes. More rigorous methodology and a focus on activity components and mechanisms is needed. We make recommendations and introduce the new Receptive Art Activity Research Reporting Guidelines (RAARR, https://osf.io/qjg72/) to support future research.