Impact of the Arts on Individual Contributions to US Civil Society

Abstract

Many studies have emerged in recent years examining the impact of the arts on educational outcomes, physical and mental health outcomes, local economies, and community well-being. Yet considerably less attention has been given to the impact that participation in the arts has on social behaviour that promotes a civil society. This study seeks to remedy this gap in the literature by examining the effect that both audience-based arts participation and direct participation in the arts have on three measures of civil society. We rely on data from the General Social Survey, which offers information on the arts participation behaviour of a random sample of adults living in the USA (n = 1.341). Multivariate analysis is used to estimate the effects of audience-based arts participation as well as personal participation in the arts (creating art) on three dimensions of civil society: Civic engagement, social tolerance, and other-regarding behaviour. We find strong evidence that the arts enhance civil society. Both audience-based participation in the arts and personal participation in creating art are linked to higher levels of civic engagement, higher levels of social tolerance on some dimensions of the measure, and higher levels of other-regarding behaviour. Our findings have important implications, in that they demonstrate a strong association between the arts and individual-level social outcomes that contribute to the health of civil society.

Key Words:

• Arts participation
• arts and culture
• civic engagement
• social tolerance
• altruism

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works programme, grant #12–3800–7014.

Notes

1. Although cognitive scientists remain skeptical about the direct effects of arts learning on academic performance, they nevertheless acknowledge the links between aesthetics and ‘higher order cognition’ involved in analysis, interpretation and problem solving.

2. While some scholars argue that civil society includes all non-state actors: ‘the good, the bad, and outright bizarre’ (Carothers & Barndt, 1999–2000, p. 20), we subscribe to the notion that civil society is ‘good’ society which excludes violence and in which positive norms and behaviours are enhanced and promoted.

3. Landry et al. (1996) and Matarasso (1997) do not separate individual level effects and community impacts of the arts in their studies while Guetzkow (2002) argues that some ‘individual level impacts, such as “personal enjoyment,” may not have any consequence on community life’ (p. 4). McCarthy et al. (2004) draw a distinct line between instrumental (educational, economic, and social) and intrinsic (aesthetic) benefits of the arts.

4. Informal arts are defined as popular creative activities that fall outside traditional nonprofit and commercial arts experiences (Wali et al., 2002).

5. The study examines the four forms of participation in arts and culture—attendance, amateur art-making, socialization of children, and financial or volunteer support—and their relationship to one another and participation in civic, religious, and community activities.

6. The GSS contains a standard core of demographic, behavioural, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Audience-based arts participation and personal arts participation questions, as well as some of the civic engagement questions are classified as ‘topics of special interest’ and thus have not been collected every year. Our analysis employs the 2002 data set because this is the most recent year in which NORC collected data on audience-based participation in the arts, and personal arts participation. The 2002 survey had a total of 2765 responses, of which a subset (n = 1341) were administered the arts participation questions.

7. Brown et al. (2008) advance a ‘multi-modal’ definition of arts participation that includes participation across three modes—audience-based attendance of arts events, direct participation in artistic activities and creation of arts, and media-based participation. Due to missing data in the 2002 GSS data set related to media-based participation, we include only audience-based and direct participation variables in our models.

8. Whereas there was high inter-item correlation among the audience-based arts participation measures to justify a scale, personal arts participation were not highly correlated. The alpha for the three personal arts participation variables was .303, suggesting that individuals who personally participate in one of these art forms are not especially likely to participate in the other forms of personal artistic activity. Therefore, it was more appropriate to examine the impacts of each of these personal arts participation measures individually on the various dependent variables, rather than construct an index of these items.