It’s official: culture makes you happier than having a drink
t can be easy to talk about the value of arts and culture in rather lofty terms but a study into how they make us feel takes a more down-to-earth approach.
Arts Council England published a study in 2015 examining how happy and relaxed we become when watching theatre or dance, going to a concert or visiting an exhibition. It used data from the iPhone app Mappiness, through which individuals rate their wellbeing and record it on their phone.
Researchers compared the happiness reported by those enjoying cultural activities with those partaking in other pursuits - including drinking alcohol, watching television and playing with children.
And some of its findings may well come as a surprise.
In terms of positive effects on happiness, the highest-ranking was ‘theatre, dance and concerts’, ahead of ‘singing, performing’, ‘exhibitions, museums, libraries’ and ‘hobbies, arts, crafts.
All these scored more highly than ‘talking chat
Ialcohol’, ‘childcare, playing with children’ and ‘watching TV, film’. When it came to relaxation, ‘Exhibitions, museums, libraries’ came top, followed by ‘Hobbies, arts, crafts’, ‘Theatre, dance, concerts’, ‘Singing, performing’ and ‘reading’.
All beat ‘drinking alcohol’, ‘watching TV/film’, ‘Talking, chatting, socialising’ and ‘Childcare, playing with children’.
The report was written by Daniel Fujiwara, a member of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and George MacKerron, who lectures in environmental and behavioural economics at the University of Sussex.
In their conclusion, they stated: “We find that all forms of cultural engagement and all art forms are positively associated with happiness and relaxation after controlling for a range of other determinants of wellbeing.
“Cultural activities rank very highly in terms of impacts on happiness and relaxation in comparison to the