The arts encourage empathy and decrease distrust of others.
Research has shown that exposure to stories of other cultural experiences, such as through literary fiction, significantly increases empathy and the ability to see another person's point of view.
Cultural participants are 2x as likely to volunteer.
Volunteerism within a community is a sure sign of civic pride and engagement, which are crucial to livability. Research shows that arts participants are more than twice as likely to volunteer as those who do not participate in the arts--a trend that holds across artforms and regardless of demographics.