Street art has brought socially relevant issues into public view, giving visibility to themes of social (in)equality, (in)justice, and (in)dignity through artistic expression. However, its emotional and behavioral effects are not well understood. This study examined how exposure to street art depicting social (in)equalities influences emotional responses and prosocial tendencies. In an online experiment, 311 participants aged 18–79 were randomly assigned to view artworks portraying: (1) situations of social inequality and vulnerability; (2) social equality, solidarity, and shared humanity; or (3) culturally diverse everyday scenes without explicit in(equality) content. Participants then reported their emotional reactions (sadness, awe, and feeling moved) and their prosocial intentions toward socially disadvantaged individuals. Results indicated that inequality-themed artworks increased reports of feeling moved and sadness, whereas equality-themed artworks increased reports of feeling moved and awe. Mediation analyses showed that being moved was the most consistent emotional pathway linking artwork exposure to prosocial intentions, mediating the effects in both the inequality and equality conditions. Sadness also mediated prosociality in the inequality condition, and awe mediated it in the equality condition. Including individual dispositions did not alter the mediating role of feeling moved. Instead, sensory processing sensitivity, prior prosocial orientation, and interest in street art provided additional explanatory value, being positively associated with prosocial intentions both directly and indirectly through higher levels of feeling moved. Overall, these findings indicate that street art depicting social inequality and equality evokes distinct mixed emotional patterns, in which feeling moved can be a central pathway to prosociality.

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prosociality,emotions,street art,awe,being moved,sadness,sensory processing sensitivity,empathy

• Psychology - Social Sciences