Effects of Dante's Poetry on Emotional Arousal of Healthy Subjects and Patients with Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Study

Previous studies have investigated the effects of Dante’s poetry on emotional arousal and cognitive workload in healthy participants by comparing excerpts from the Inferno and Paradiso of the Divina Commedia. In this pilot study, conducted in a hospital setting, we measured electrodermal activity, an index of emotional arousal, in healthy subjects and neurological patients with spinal cord injury while they listened to four different audio recordings: Dante’s Inferno, Dante’s Paradiso, Machiavelli’s Il Principe, and a newspaper article about the anniversary of Dante’s death. We found significantly higher emotional arousal in both healthy subjects and patients when listening to Dante’s Paradiso, than when listening to Machiavelli’s Il Principe or the newspaper article. In contrast, no significant difference emerged between the Paradiso and the Inferno. These findings were supported by higher scores assigned to Dante’s recordings on the Beauty Assessment Scale. In this explicit assessment, participants preferred Dante’s Inferno. Finally, the results showed a reduction in negative affect after the entire task. In conclusion, the electrodermal activity results, combined with the explicit aesthetic scores in this pilot study, suggest that Dante’s poetry may enhance emotional arousal in hospital workers, caregivers, and patients hospitalized for rehabilitation.