Art museums are inherently social spaces, and social interaction is a key element of arts-based health interventions. Despite this, the effects of viewing art in social contexts remain largely unexplored in empirical aesthetics. This research presents the first experimental, large-scale study to systematically investigate how social interactions, especially through meaningful conversation, influence aesthetic experience and well-being. Conducted within a special exhibition space at the Manchester Art Gallery, this experiment employed a between-participant design in which visitors (N = 240) were randomly assigned to either an Individual viewing condition, a Synchronized silent group viewing condition, or a Discussion-based group viewing condition. Participants viewed two paintings for 10 min each while listening to a series of slow-looking prompts. While we observed overall increases in well-being markers such as valence, positive affect, and social connectedness, there were notable group differences as well. Namely, the Discussion group reported higher scores in various aesthetic experience outcomes as compared to the Synchronized group, although the Individual group also reported higher emotional engagement and gallery experience ratings as compared to Synchronized group participants. However, only participants in the Discussion group exhibited significant well-being impacts, reporting increased positive affect, social connectedness, and group closeness relative to the Synchronized group. This study highlights the potential for integrating discussion-based art viewing into gallery programming to deepen art engagement and promote visitor well-being, offering valuable insights for museum curators and educators.
艺术博物馆本质上是社会性交往空间，而社会互动亦是以艺术为基础的健康干预中的关键要素。尽管如此，在经验美学研究中，社会情境下观看艺术作品所产生的影响仍在很大程度上缺乏系统探讨。本研究开展了首个实验性、大样本研究，旨在系统考察社会互动，尤其是有意义的交流，如何影响审美体验与幸福感。该研究在曼彻斯特美术馆（Manchester Art Gallery）的一个专题展览空间内进行，采用被试间实验设计，将参观者（N=240）随机分配至三种条件之一：个体观看条件、同步静默群体观看条件，以及基于讨论的群体观看条件。参与者在聆听一系列“慢观看”（slow-looking）提示语的同时，对两幅绘画作品各观看10分钟。结果显示，整体而言，参与者在效价、积极情绪以及社会联结感等幸福感指标上均有所提升；与此同时，不同组别之间也呈现出显著差异。具体而言，与同步静默群体观看组相比，讨论组在多项审美体验结果指标上的得分更高；此外，个体观看组在情感投入和画廊体验评分方面也高于同步静默组。然而，只有讨论组在幸福感层面表现出显著效应，相较于同步静默组，该组参与者报告了更高水平的积极情绪、社会联结感以及群体亲近感。本研究强调，将基于讨论的艺术观看方式整合进美术馆项目设计之中，具有深化艺术参与并促进参观者幸福感的潜力，同时也为博物馆策展人和教育工作者提供了重要启示。
