ANOVAs of Pain and Stress Measures from a Multimodal Art Experiment

42 female participants submitted self-selected movingly beautiful visual artworks and music pieces for a repeated-measures study on pain and stress reduction. The dataset includes pain measures (global perception, intensity, affect, tolerance) and stress responses (subjective reports, autonomic and endocrine activity) collected by Anna Fekete and last updated in May 2026. Exposure to multimodal art resulted in longer pain tolerance (M=80.19s) compared to visual art (M=56.63s).

Use Cases

• Compare pain tolerance across different aesthetic conditions (music, visual art, multimodal) based on the reported ANOVA results.
• Analyze correlations between trait absorption and pain measures in specific experimental conditions based on the regression results described.
• Investigate the relationship between subjective stress reports and physiological markers (cortisol, alpha-amylase, ECG, EDA) mentioned in the study.
• Examine individual differences in aesthetic experience using measures of trait empathy and absorption referenced in the description.

Strengths

• Includes detailed physiological measures such as electrocardiography, electrodermal activity, salivary alpha-amylase, and cortisol.
• Based on a controlled repeated-measures design with 42 participants across four conditions (music, visual art, multimodal, control).
• Provides specific statistical results, including means, standard deviations, p-values, and effect sizes (η²) for key comparisons.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The sample consists exclusively of 42 female participants, which limits generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Anna Fekete via figshare.

Collection Method

Data collected from a laboratory experiment using a cold pressor test to induce pain and stress.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 17:36:55; freshness should be verified.