Confronting Sadness Through Art-Making: Distraction Is More Beneficial Than Venting

We examined two ways in which art-making may function to elevate mood-venting (expressing negative feelings) and distraction (expressing something unrelated to the negative feelings). In Study I we induced a negative mood in participants by showing them a sad film clip and then assigned them to one of two conditions. In the venting condition they were asked to draw something related to the film; in the distraction condition they were asked to draw an image unrelated to the film (a house). In Study 2 we induced a negative mood by asking participants to think of the saddest event they had experienced and then assigned them to one of three conditions: venting, distraction, and sitting - a new condition in which participants just sat quietly. This latter condition allowed us to assess the effect of passage of time. In both studies, positive and negative affect were measured before and after the assigned activity. In both studies, mood improved significantly more in the distraction than in the venting or sitting condition. We argue that the mood elevating effects of art-making are stronger when art is used to distract than when used to vent.