Graywill, K. L. (2020). The visual language of pain. [Master’s thesis, University of London]. Retrieved from https://www.klgraywill.com/visualpain
ABSTRACT:
This study sought to address a gap in the literature surrounding what kind of images have the capacity to evoke empathetic behavior, and what characteristics of those images enable them to be perceived as beautiful. To explore this, participants viewed a series of neutral and painful stimuli depicting humans with visible and invisible injuries across two different rendering styles, plain and artistic. The results suggested that art impacts empathetic responses via two streams: one where rendering style acts as a proxy for visual pain information which can predict cognitive empathy, and another where individual aesthetic judgments themselves, in the form of liking and beauty, fully mediated the relationship between rendering style and affective empathy. This study illustrates the capacity of images to modulate multidimensional empathy through art by utilizing visual aids and aesthetic appeal to mitigate the negative valence of painful stimuli. This has important implications for any discipline that compels, trains, informs, or entertains through use of images depicting pain.