EMOTION RESEARCH
How does that make you feel?
Self-portraits can help create new opportunities for psychology.
Not just impressive, but useful for research too: self-portraits by the Belgian artist Armand Henrion. | Images: Armand François Joseph Henrion/Collection Klewan/Belvedere Museum
The Belgian artist Armand Henrion (1875–1958) painted over 2,000 self-portraits. These could prove a treasure trove for research into the emotions, claim psychologists from the Universities of Lausanne and Vienna. In an initial study, their test subjects read a broad mixture of feelings into each painting. Up to now, researchers in the field of psychology have preferred using standardised photos of faces that express a single emotion. But by contrast, these artworks are surprisingly more realistic.
