Gravitating Toward the Arts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our lives with individuals experiencing a wide range of emotions. While much attention has been placed on promoting physical health to control the coronavirus, far less attention has been placed on promoting mental health and well-being. There are well-known reports of individuals gravitating toward the arts during times of extreme stress: art is made in prisons; novels are written secretly in police states. In this study we examined whether individuals turned to the arts to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, how everyday artistic activities helped them regulate their emotions, and whether certain personality traits predicted the use of these strategies. We administered a survey to 486 participants (M-age = 35.7; SDage = 12.3; Range(age) = 18 to 79), asking them about the frequency of artistic activities they engaged in, the artistic activity they felt was the most helpful for coping with the pandemic, and how they used that activity to regulate their emotions. Four findings emerged: (a) participants reported engaging in artistic activities more often during than before the pandemic; (b) listening to music was the most helpful activity, followed by reading, and then the visual arts; (c) artistic activities regulated emotions most commonly by providing a means of escape; and (d) the personality trait of openness to experience predicted use of the approach and self-development emotion regulation strategies. These findings demonstrate that we gravitated toward the arts during the COVID-19 pandemic and that we did so because these activities provided a form of escape.