Sensory-Mediated ' Arts on Prescription ' : Emotional Arousal Mechanisms through Portuguese Azulejo Craft Workshop

Jing Xu^*qianyao WangAijia ZhangXuexing LuoGuanghui Huang

• Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macao, SAR China

Background: This study investigates the therapeutic potential of the Portuguese Azulejo craft within an Arts on Prescription framework, focusing on how sensory engagement across creative stages supports the regulation of a positive emotional state, suggesting a potential U-shaped trajectory (with calming early phases and a spike of excitement in the final phase) in Portuguese Azulejo workshops. Furthermore, the study suggests a preliminary empirical relationship between MBTI personality types and color-emotion associations. Results demonstrate that multisensory engagement enhances positive affect, well-being, cultural cognition, and culture preservation intent, establishing a cognition-emotion-behaviour model for cross-cultural art interventions.Methods: Twenty-five participants (Mean age=34.25) took part in a cross-cultural summer workshop. Emotional states were measured pre- and post-workshop using the Cultural Cognition and Culture Preservation intent, the Subjective Happiness Scale, and the PANAS. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test assessed changes in emotion (p < 0.05). Due to sample size limitations, Pearson correlations were used to examine associations between emotional shifts and related factors (cultural cognition, culture preservation intent, well-being and affect). Spearman rank correlations were conducted to assess the relationship between creative stages and emotional response, and also attempt to analyze and compare the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) with the colors and emotions used in the works to dissect the impact of personality traits on emotions in the craft experience.Results: Post-intervention, participants demonstrated significant improvements in cultural cognition (p<0.001), subjective well-being (p=0.003), and cultural preservation intent (p<0.001). Positive affect, as measured by the PANAS, increased significantly (p<0.001), while negative affect did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.16). Emotional responses varied across production stages, with initial tactile phases eliciting anticipation, mid-stage emotions stabilizing, and late-stage fluctuations linked to outcome expectations. Furthermore, participants were influenced by different patterns of MBTI personality types in terms of color use and emotional expression.Conclusion: The study underscores the therapeutic value of multisensory craft experiences, particularly the role of tactile-visual synergy in emotional regulation. Cross-cultural craft workshops support cognitive engagement, emotional well-being, and protective behaviors, highlighting their potential as group-based therapeutic interventions.