International Journal of Public Opinion Research 15:119-133 (2003)
© 2003 World Association for Public Opinion Research
Reconstructing Past Social Moods from Paintings: The Eye of the Beheld
He is a former president of WAPOR (1965–6) and of AAPOR.
Address correspondence to Leo Bogart, 150 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019, USA, E-mail: leobogart{at}att.net
Opinion researchers use surveys to record fluctuations in the public's morale. Is it possible to use other indicators to gauge the public mood during the centuries of history before surveys were invented? Paintings of human faces provide a historical record of social interaction. When someone in a picture gazes back at the onlooker, this might reflect a spirit of openness in human relationships, and hence of relatively high social morale. Conversely, its absence could be linked to the occurrence of critical or traumatic historical events that have an adverse effect on the prevailing mood. An analysis was made of over 14,000 paintings, classified by date, nationality, and the number of individuals portrayed. Eye contact increased dramatically with the early Renaissance transition from religious to secular subjects and declined after the invention of photography in the nineteenth century. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, the relation of painting's subjects to their viewers is not a useful indicator of social stress and its impact on the prevailing sense of well-being. Rather it seems to reflect complex social forces that constantly reshape artistic subject matter and technique.