The Psychology of Museum Experiences: A Field Study of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well‐Being

ABSTRACT Museums are increasingly perceived as spaces where visitors' experience extends to their well‐being, functioning as potential well‐being generators. However, little is known about whether museums can foster different types of well‐being (i.e., hedonic and eudaimonic), which psychological processes are involved, and how visitors' pre‐visit factors shape these outcomes. To answer these questions, we conducted a pre/post‐visit field study to examine the experiences of 386 visitors across a hedonically designed (Museum of Chocolate) and a eudaimonically designed museum (Museum of Broken Relationships). Results showed that the hedonically designed museum elicited greater hedonic well‐being than the eudaimonically designed museum, while both museums equally fostered eudaimonic well‐being. Furthermore, the hedonically designed museum evoked predominantly positive emotions and more hedonic behavior, whereas the eudaimonically designed museum elicited a mix of positive and negative emotions and more eudaimonic behavior. Moreover, visitors who entered either museum with higher expectations and higher pre‐visit well‐being reported higher post‐visit well‐being. We discuss how these novel findings fit with the idea of museums as well‐being generators, highlight the role that pre‐visit well‐being and expectations play in shaping well‐being during and after the visit, and discuss practical implications for museum design.