Jürjo was prompted to study the subject by the realization that previous theater research often treats audience members as a single group, overlooking the individual. As a theater scholar who also works as a psychologist, she wanted to look more closely. "To see what happens to an individual, I needed to do the work that seemed to be missing," Jürjo said.

Several interconnected mechanisms shape how an audience member responds psychologically to a performance, from attention and memory to emotion. The model Jürjo developed looks at the process over a broader period: It begins before the performance, as expectations take shape, and culminates in the theater with cognitive and emotional processing and the creation of meaning.

Jürjo emphasizes that a theater experience is always deeply personal because no one enters the auditorium as a blank slate. "Experiences, attitudes and beliefs — these are the lens through which we view the world and the performance," she explained.

That personal outlook gives rise to what is known as a "horizon of expectations," or a prediction about what will happen onstage. If what the audience member sees does not match those expectations, cognitive dissonance may arise. Jürjo sees this as a valuable opportunity to learn: "If I feel mental discomfort, which is what cognitive dissonance is, I have to either change what I already think and believe or decide that my view is more accurate than what is being presented. A great deal of mental work related to what is happening onstage actually begins at that point."

Compared with other art forms, theater has a distinctive quality rooted in the audience and performers sharing the same time and space. "Theater happens here and now and it involves human bodies. Our brains respond differently to bodies," Jürjo said, describing the effect of the shared space between audience members and actors.

She cited Vanemuine Theater's production of "The Beauty Queen of Leenane," in which hot oil is poured onto an actor's hand onstage. Although viewers can rationally understand that it is a theatrical trick, mirror neurons in the brain begin to work, triggering emotional empathy. The viewer's body responds to the action onstage as though they themselves were feeling pain, setting the theater experience apart from, for example, watching something on a screen.

Theater as a mirror of the self and a safe space

Although theater can create opportunities to engage with difficult personal issues, it is not therapy. "We shouldn't give the false impression that we can all go to the theater and all our mental health problems will disappear," the psychologist stressed. "But theater does offer a good, safe space to encounter certain issues and understand the difficulties people face."

Jürjo pointed to the Estonian Drama Theater's production of "Prima Facie," which deals with a rape case and the legal proceedings that follow. "When we talk about trauma patients, the memory of the trauma often remains stuck at the moment it happened. The memory is so fragmented that the brain cannot put together a narrative — there is only that one image. But theater moves forward, offering a chance to see that the story does not end with the trauma," Jürjo explained.

Watching characters from a distance can also help people develop empathy for themselves. While people often find it difficult to show themselves compassion, a production can offer a new perspective. "A useful question in therapy is: What would you say to your best friend? Here, we can turn that into: What would you say to this character? Would you blame them? Most likely not," the psychologist added.

Jürjo believes the model of how audiences respond to performances could also have practical value for directors and playwrights, helping them better understand the feelings of people in the audience. "When dealing with more difficult subjects, you can pause to think about your audience: Who might be the most vulnerable person in the room and what message will they take away? It's a good way to shift perspective for a moment and consider whether the person in the audience can truly receive the message I want to convey from the stage," she said.

Merilin Jürjo's doctoral dissertation, "A Psychological Model of Theater Performance Reception," was supervised by University of Tartu professor of theater studies Anneli Saro and lecturer in school psychology Astra Schults. Stockholm University professor emeritus Willmar Sauter served as the opponent. The full dissertation is available in the University of Tartu's digital repository.

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