Art opening minds: An experimental study on the effects of temporal and perspectival complexity in film on open-mindedness

Aesthetic Cognitivism posits that artworks have the potential to enhance open-mindedness. However, this claim has not yet been explored empirically. Here, we present two experiments that investigate the extent to which two formal features of film – temporal and perspectival complexity - can ‘open our minds’. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the temporal complexity of film. Participants (Ntotal=100) watched a film (Memento) either in its original non-chronological order or the same film in a chronological order. In Experiment 2, we manipulated perspectival complexity in film. Participants (Ntotal=100) watched an excerpt from a film (Jackie Brown) that either included the perspectives of multiple characters on an event or a single character’s perspective on the same event. Film conditions in both experiments were further compared with a control condition in which participants did not watch a film (N=50). Participants’ open-mindedness was assessed in both experiments through four empirical indicators (creativity, imaginability, cognitive flexibility, openness to new evidence), and in Experiment 2 participants’ eye movements, heart rate and electrodermal activity were measured while watching the film. Results showed that watching films, regardless of their temporal or perspectival complexity, modulated only one facet of open-mindedness —cognitive flexibility— when compared to the no-film control condition, providing only limited support for the aesthetic cognitivist claim that artistic films can ‘open our minds’. Real-time measures in Experiment 2 revealed that pupil size and number of fixations were modulated by perspectival complexity: both were smaller when watching a film from multiple perspectives compared to a single perspective. Possible explanations for this difference are examined in relation to the viewers' cognitive processes involved in understanding and interpreting film content.