Museums, concerts, theater: why culture hits harder with company
Doing things together · Équipe Viatous · 4 min
You walk out of an exhibition that blew you away. You want to talk about it, about the painting that stopped you dead, the room that made you laugh. But you're alone on the sidewalk, and the moment fades away on the ride home.
Culture works fine on your own, but it takes on another dimension with others. You notice things you'd have missed, you laugh at the same lines, and you stretch the experience by talking about it. Researchers have even watched audience members' hearts start beating in sync.
What culture does for you
Researchers Daisy Fancourt and Urszula Tymoszuk from University College London followed more than 2,000 adults aged 50 and over in England for ten years. Their study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry , found that people who went to museums, theater, concerts or the cinema every few months had a 32 percent lower risk of developing depression , and those who went at least once a month had a 48 percent lower risk. It's an association, not proof of cause and effect, and the study looked at older adults. But among the possible explanations, the authors point to the social contact these outings bring.
There are lighter experiments too. In 2017, researchers from University College London tracked the heart rates of 12 audience members during a musical in London. According to the university , their heartbeats synchronized during the show, and that synchrony carried on into the interval between people who had come together. A small experiment, commissioned by a ticketing company, but a lovely image: at the theater, you really do live the show together.
At the museum: don't see everything, see it well
Pick one exhibition or one wing , not the whole museum. An hour and a half is the right length.
The favorite-piece game : everyone wanders at their own pace for twenty minutes, then takes the others to the piece they picked and explains why.
The title game : in front of a painting, everyone makes up a title before reading the label. Funniest one wins.
Check prices : many museums offer discounts for young people or free time slots.
At a concert: energy is shared
A concert with others means someone to sing the chorus with, someone to save your spot while you grab water, and a debrief on the way home. For a first outing with people you don't know yet, go for small venues, open-air concerts or concert halls: easier to find each other and chat beforehand.
Tip: set a precise meeting point in front of the entrance, and another for the exit. In a crowd, "see you out front" means nothing.
At the theater: the best part is afterwards
A play is a conversation that starts when the curtain falls. What did we get? Who liked which character? Was the ending brilliant or a letdown? Plan half an hour after the show, in a café or while walking, to talk about it. That's often when the evening becomes memorable.
For a first time, comedies and improv shows are perfect: you laugh together, and the ice melts right away.
The little rules of a good group outing
Book ahead and make sure everyone has a ticket.
Arrive a little early to get acquainted before the lights go down.
Welcome different tastes. Not liking the same thing is the best conversation starter.
Phones on silent , obviously.
Find someone to go with
The exhibition everyone's talking about closes in two weeks, and nobody around you is free? On Viatous , you just write what you want: "Anyone up for the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay on Saturday afternoon, then a coffee to talk about it?" or "Looking for two people for an improv show in Marseille on Friday night."
Viatous understands what you mean and builds a Room : 2 to 4 compatible people. Roomi, the Viatous robot, welcomes the group, walks everyone through the steps and goes over the rules. You meet outside the venue, in public, and the Room stays open before and during the outing, handy for spotting each other at the entrance. You show up with your first name and can leave the Room at any time.
And if you enjoyed going out together, the Room can become a Circle , if everyone wants to: one cultural outing a month, and your season is off.
Next time, out on the sidewalk, someone will turn to you and ask: "So, which painting was yours?" See how Viatous works and find someone to go with.