Art Schema Effects on Affective Experience: The Case of Disgusting Images

Can we experience depictions of repulsive objects more positively when we watch them as part of a work
of art? We addressed this question by using a scenario approach in a laboratory setting designed to
activate two different cognitive schemata: participants viewed the same pictures framed either as art
photographs or as documentary photographs for educational purposes. Self-reports of the positivity, the
negativity, and the intensity of the affective responses yielded three results. First, participants experienced
the photos more positively in the art-framing condition. Second, the negativity ratings did not
differ in both conditions, suggesting that art framing does not erase, diminish, or convert the negative
affect vis-a`-vis the disgusting stimulus features. Third, there was no difference in terms of the intensity
of the experience—a result that contradicts the position that aesthetic emotions are less intense than
ordinary emotions. The results of our study suggest that cognitive schema activation should be included
in a multifactor psychological account of the aesthetic enjoyment of artworks that involve negative
emotions. More specifically, results add to the growing insight into what distinguishes aesthetically
modified emotions from ordinary emotions.