Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

We successfully replicated our previous findings and can now conclude with a high level of confidence that individuals who attend traditional live musical performances are more likely to engage in pro-social behaviors, e.g., making charitable donations or volunteering, attending community meetings or voting.

Individuals who attended other live arts-related events, e.g., dance, theater, art exhibitions, and nontraditional music performances, were also more likely to engage in pro-social behavior.This finding suggests that the relationship holds irrespective of the artistic domain.

The findings suggested that the link between exposure to the arts and pro-social behavior is based primarily on the social characteristics of these encounters, e.g., shared group identity, familiarity with performers or artists, multimodal sensory experience, etiquette, venue, and customs or rituals.

Individuals who were exposed to the arts through the Internet were also more likely to engage in pro-social behavior. This makes sense in that the Internet is essentially a public medium that is structured to facilitate interpersonal communication and sharing and that is universally accessible, including to those who lack the resources to attend a live performance.

There were numerous reasons that individuals were drawn to the arts. But most importantwas that the reasons for attending did not operate independently of one another, and consideringthem in isolation would be misleading.

Comments

National Endowment for the Arts Final Report, Grant No. FDR 14-3800-7016

Place of Publication

Washington, DC

Keywords

Arts-Related Experiences, Motivation, Civic Engagement


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