AI Insight
This study examined whether two types of museum educational activities—visual thinking strategies (VTS) sessions and standard guided visits—were associated with short-term psychological benefits in 135 adults across two Milan museums. Both activities showed comparable reductions in state anxiety (moderate-to-large effect size) and improvements in mood immediately after participation, though participants described their experiences differently, with VTS eliciting more cognitive and social descriptions while guided visits prompted more emotional-aesthetic responses. However, the study lacked a control group and random assignment, preventing causal claims about whether the museum activities directly caused these changes.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that standard educational museum programming may offer psychological benefits beyond learning outcomes, potentially informing museum design and public health approaches. The research opens pathways for investigating museums as accessible community resources for mental wellbeing, though controlled studies are needed to establish causality.
Understand the Science
IntroductionMuseum visits are increasingly recognised as contributors to psychological well-being, but less is known about whether museum activities designed for educational purposes are associated with short-term affective changes. Within the ASBA (Anxiety, Stress, Brain-friendly museum, Approach) project, this study examined two educational (non-therapeutic) activities, a visual thinking strategies (VTS) session and a standard guided visit, conducted in two culturally distinct settings in Milan, Italy: the Modern Art Gallery (MAG) and the Natural History Museum (NHM).MethodsIn a pre–post design with two between-subjects factors (activity and museum), 135 adults attending 11 group sessions (VTS: n= 85, 7 sessions; guided visit: n= 50, 4 sessions) completed the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) and six Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) before and after the activity and briefly described their experience in an open-ended question. State anxiety was the primary, confirmatory outcome; all other analyses were exploratory. Changes were analysed with multilevel models including a random intercept for session, and the open-ended responses with a descriptive content analysis.ResultsState anxiety decreased from pre to post (Δ = −5.55, 95% CI [−6.85, −4.26]; d_av = −0.81) and mood improved (Δ = +1.07, 95% CI [0.74, 1.40]; d_av = 0.72), with negligible dependence within sessions (ICC ≤ 0.04). In a multilevel ANCOVA adjusting for baseline anxiety, no statistically detectable difference emerged between activities (adjusted difference = 0.38 SAI points, 95% CI [−2.67, 3.42]). The content analysis suggested that participants reached these changes through different experiential routes: cognitive descriptions prevailed after VTS, emotional-aesthetic descriptions after the guided visit, and social-relational descriptions were reported only after VTS.DiscussionBoth educational activities were followed by comparable short-term improvements in state anxiety and mood, although participants described them in different terms. Because the study did not include a non-museum control condition and allocation was not randomised, these changes cannot be causally attributed to the museum activities. The findings are preliminary and hypothesis-generating and warrant controlled studies of museum-based activities for wellbeing.