Empathy, Narcissism, and Visual Arts Engagement

Abstract

Empathy involves imagining others’ minds and feeling compassion for them, and narcissism is a sense of inflated self-esteem with a low regard for others. In this chapter, I will review scientific research on empathy, narcissism, and visual arts, including creativity. I will present evidence that there are two paths to arts engagement, just as with any behavior. Some people likely get involved with the arts because they care about others and want to improve the world in some way, and some people get involved for more self-focused reasons. The final section will make recommendations for future research and for how these ideas can be applied to museum settings.