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Jonauskaite D, Epicoco D, Al-Rasheed AS, Aruta JJBR, Bogushevskaya V, Brederoo SG, Corona V, Fomins S, Gizdic A, Griber YA, Havelka J, Hirnstein M, John G, Jopp DS, Karlsson B, Konstantinou N, Laurent É, Marquardt L, Mefoh PC, Oberfeld D, Papadatou-Pastou M, Perchtold-Stefan CM, Spagnulo GFM, Sultanova A, Tanaka T, Tengco-Pacquing MC, Uusküla M, Wąsowicz G, Mohr C. A comparative analysis of colour-emotion associations in 16-88-year-old adults from 31 countries. Br J Psychol 2024; 115:275-305. [PMID: 38041610 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 10/03/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
As people age, they tend to spend more time indoors, and the colours in their surroundings may significantly impact their mood and overall well-being. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to provide informed guidance on colour choices, irrespective of age group. To work towards informed choices, we investigated whether the associations between colours and emotions observed in younger individuals also apply to older adults. We recruited 7393 participants, aged between 16 and 88 years and coming from 31 countries. Each participant associated 12 colour terms with 20 emotion concepts and rated the intensity of each associated emotion. Different age groups exhibited highly similar patterns of colour-emotion associations (average similarity coefficient of .97), with subtle yet meaningful age-related differences. Adolescents associated the greatest number but the least positively biased emotions with colours. Older participants associated a smaller number but more intense and more positive emotions with all colour terms, displaying a positivity effect. Age also predicted arousal and power biases, varying by colour. Findings suggest parallels in colour-emotion associations between younger and older adults, with subtle but significant age-related variations. Future studies should next assess whether colour-emotion associations reflect what people actually feel when exposed to colour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Domicele Jonauskaite
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Déborah Epicoco
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | - Sanne G Brederoo
- University Center for Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Violeta Corona
- School of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
- Business Management Department, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
| | - Sergejs Fomins
- Department of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Optometry, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
| | - Alena Gizdic
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Yulia A Griber
- Department of Sociology and Philosophy, Smolensk State University, Smolensk, Russia
| | | | - Marco Hirnstein
- Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - George John
- Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (formerly), New Delhi, India
| | - Daniela S Jopp
- Institute of Psychology and LIVES Center of Competence, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Bodil Karlsson
- Division Built Environment, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Nikos Konstantinou
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus
| | - Éric Laurent
- Laboratoire de recherches Intégratives en Neurosciences et psychologie Cognitive (LINC), Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Lynn Marquardt
- Section for Clinical Neurophysiology, Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
| | - Philip C Mefoh
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
| | - Daniel Oberfeld
- Institute of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | | | | | | | | | - Takumi Tanaka
- Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Mari Uusküla
- School of Humanities, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
| | - Grażyna Wąsowicz
- Department of Economic Psychology, Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Christine Mohr
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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2
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The good, the bad, and the red: implicit color-valence associations across cultures. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2023; 87:704-724. [PMID: 35838836 PMCID: PMC10017663 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01697-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Cultural differences-as well as similarities-have been found in explicit color-emotion associations between Chinese and Western populations. However, implicit associations in a cross-cultural context remain an understudied topic, despite their sensitivity to more implicit knowledge. Moreover, they can be used to study color systems-that is, emotional associations with one color in the context of an opposed one. Therefore, we tested the influence of two different color oppositions on affective stimulus categorization: red versus green and red versus white, in two experiments. In Experiment 1, stimuli comprised positive and negative words, and participants from the West (Austria/Germany), and the East (Mainland China, Macau) were tested in their native languages. The Western group showed a significantly stronger color-valence interaction effect than the Mainland Chinese (but not the Macanese) group for red-green but not for red-white opposition. To explore color-valence interaction effects independently of word stimulus differences between participant groups, we used affective silhouettes instead of words in Experiment 2. Again, the Western group showed a significantly stronger color-valence interaction than the Chinese group in red-green opposition, while effects in red-white opposition did not differ between cultural groups. Our findings complement those from explicit association research in an unexpected manner, where explicit measures showed similarities between cultures (associations for red and green), our results revealed differences and where explicit measures showed differences (associations with white), our results showed similarities, underlining the value of applying comprehensive measures in cross-cultural research on cross-modal associations.
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Christensen AP, Cardillo ER, Chatterjee A. What kind of impacts can artwork have on viewers? Establishing a taxonomy for aesthetic impacts. Br J Psychol 2022; 114:335-351. [PMID: 36519205 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
What kinds of impacts can visual art have on a viewer? To identify potential art impacts, we recruited five aesthetics experts from different academic disciplines: art history, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and theology. Together, the group curated a set of terms that corresponded to descriptive features (124 terms) and cognitive-affective impacts (69 terms) of artworks. Using these terms as prompts, participants (n = 899) were given one minute to generate words for each term related to how an artwork looked (descriptive features) or made them think or feel (cognitive-affective impacts). Using network psychometric approaches, we identified terms that were semantically similar based on participants' responses and applied hierarchical exploratory graph analysis to map the relationships between the terms. Our analyses identified 17 descriptive dimensions, which could be further reduced to 5, and 11 impact dimensions, which could be further reduced to 4. The resulting taxonomy demonstrated overlap between the descriptive and impact networks as well as consistency with empirical evidence. This taxonomy could serve as the foundation to empirically evaluate art's impacts on viewers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander P Christensen
- Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.,Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Eileen R Cardillo
- Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Anjan Chatterjee
- Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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4
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Uusküla M, Mohr C, Epicoco D, Jonauskaite D. Is Purple Lost in Translation? The Affective Meaning of Purple, Violet, and Lilac Cognates in 16 Languages and 30 Populations. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2022:10.1007/s10936-022-09920-5. [PMID: 36462095 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-022-09920-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Colour-emotion association data show a universal consistency in colour-emotion associations, apart from emotion associations with PURPLE. Possibly, its heterogeneity was due to different cognates used as basic colour terms between languages. We analysed emotion associations with PURPLE across 30 populations, 28 countries, and 16 languages (4,008 participants in total). Crucially, these languages used the cognates of purple, lilac, or violet to denote the basic PURPLE category. We found small but systematic affective differences between these cognates. They were ordered as purple > lilac > violet on valence, arousal, and power biases. Statistically, the cognate purple was the most strongly biased towards associations with positive emotions, and lilac was biased more strongly than violet. Purple was more biased towards high power emotions than violet, but cognates did not differ on arousal biases. Additionally, affective biases differed by population, suggesting high variability within each cognate. Thus, cognates partly account for inconsistencies in the meaning of PURPLE, without explaining their origins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mari Uusküla
- School of Humanities, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
| | - Christine Mohr
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Déborah Epicoco
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Domicele Jonauskaite
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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5
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Can we really 'read' art to see the changing brain? A review and empirical assessment of clinical case reports and published artworks for systematic evidence of quality and style changes linked to damage or neurodegenerative disease. Phys Life Rev 2022; 43:32-95. [PMID: 36179555 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The past three decades have seen multiple reports of people with neurodegenerative disorders, or other forms of changes in their brains, who also show putative changes in how they approach and produce visual art. Authors argue that these cases may provide a unique body of evidence, so-called 'artistic signatures' of neurodegenerative diseases, that might be used to understand disorders, provide diagnoses, be employed in treatment, create patterns of testable hypotheses for causative study, and also provide unique insight into the neurobiological linkages between the mind, brain, body, and the human penchant for art-making itself. However-before we can begin to meaningfully build from such emerging findings, much less formulate applications-not only is such evidence currently quite disparate and in need of systematic review, almost all case reports and artwork ratings are entirely subjective, based on authors' personal observations or a sparse collection of methods that may not best fit underlying research aims. This leads to the very real question of whether we might actually find patterns of systematic change if fit to a rigorous review-Can we really 'read' art to illuminate possible changes in the brain? How might we best approach this topic in future neuroscientific, clinical, and art-related research? This paper presents a review of this field and answer to these questions. We consider the current case reports for seven main disorders-Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal and Lewy body dementia, corticobasal degeneration, aphasia, as well as stroke-consolidating arguments for factors and changes related to art-making and critiquing past methods. Taking the published artworks from these papers, we then conduct our own assessment, employing computerized and human-rater-based approaches, which we argue represent best practice to identify stylistic or creativity/quality changes. We suggest, indeed, some evidence for systematic patterns in art-making for specific disorders and also find that case authors showed rather high agreement with our own assessments. More important, through opening this topic and past evidence to a systematic review, we hope to open a discussion and provide a theoretical and empirical foundation for future application and research on the intersection of art-making and the neurotypical, the changed, and the artistic brain.
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6
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Leder H, Hakala J, Peltoketo VT, Valuch C, Pelowski M. Swipes and Saves: A Taxonomy of Factors Influencing Aesthetic Assessments and Perceived Beauty of Mobile Phone Photographs. Front Psychol 2022; 13:786977. [PMID: 35295400 PMCID: PMC8918498 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.786977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Digital images taken by mobile phones are the most frequent class of images created today. Due to their omnipresence and the many ways they are encountered, they require a specific focus in research. However, to date, there is no systematic compilation of the various factors that may determine our evaluations of such images, and thus no explanation of how users select and identify relatively “better” or “worse” photos. Here, we propose a theoretical taxonomy of factors influencing the aesthetic appeal of mobile phone photographs. Beyond addressing relatively basic/universal image characteristics, perhaps more related to fast (bottom-up) perceptual processing of an image, we also consider factors involved in the slower (top-down) re-appraisal or deepened aesthetic appreciation of an image. We span this taxonomy across specific types of picture genres commonly taken—portraits of other people, selfies, scenes and food. We also discuss the variety of goals, uses, and contextual aspects of users of mobile phone photography. As a working hypothesis, we propose that two main decisions are often made with mobile phone photographs: (1) Users assess images at a first glance—by swiping through a stack of images—focusing on visual aspects that might be decisive to classify them from “low quality” (too dark, out of focus) to “acceptable” to, in rare cases, “an exceptionally beautiful picture.” (2) Users make more deliberate decisions regarding one’s “favorite” picture or the desire to preserve or share a picture with others, which are presumably tied to aspects such as content, framing, but also culture or personality, which have largely been overlooked in empirical research on perception of photographs. In sum, the present review provides an overview of current focal areas and gaps in research and offers a working foundation for upcoming research on the perception of mobile phone photographs as well as future developments in the fields of image recording and sharing technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helmut Leder
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- *Correspondence: Helmut Leder,
| | - Jussi Hakala
- Huawei Technologies Oy (Finland) Co. Ltd, Tampere, Finland
| | | | - Christian Valuch
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Matthew Pelowski
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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7
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Zhang W, Tao Y, Lai S, Zhao X, Lai S, He X. Positive referential meaning and color metaphor bring beauty: Evidence on aesthetic appraisal of ancient Chinese character from Han, Bai, and Yi ethnic groups. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-02728-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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8
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Zhang S, Zheng J, Mo L. The effect of the brightness metaphor on memory. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 86:1751-1762. [PMID: 34689220 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01611-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Brightness-based metaphor effects on perception have been widely documented. For example, moral content makes perception brighter. But does moral content make a bright memory brighter? We tested the effect of the moral brightness metaphor on different cognitive processes (perception, working memory, and long-term memory), and extended evidence of the relationship between brightness and moral concepts to the relationship between brightness and positive concepts. Different samples of college students participated in five experiments. In all experiments, moral (immoral) and positive (negative) pictures of varying levels of brightness were presented, and then participants reconstructed the brightness of each picture using a keyboard to adjust the brightness of an picture. Together, the results of ANOVAs across experiments showed that the metaphorical effect of brightness played no role in perception or working memory, but there was a significant increase in brightness in long-term memory. These results support the non-unidirectionality of metaphor, and extend the conceptual metaphor theory and simulating sensorimotor metaphors theory by enhancing the effect of metaphor through the cognitive mechanism of long-term memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shijia Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, No. 55, West of Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jianhong Zheng
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Development and Education for Special Needs Children, Department of Psychology and Key Laboratory of Psychological Assessment and Rehabilitation for Exceptional Children, Lingnan Normal University, 29 Cunjin Road, Chikan District, Zhanjiang, 524000, Guangdong, China.
| | - Lei Mo
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China. .,School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, No. 55, West of Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China.
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9
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Winskel H, Forrester D, Hong M, O'Connor K. Seeing red as anger or romance: an emotion categorisation task. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2021.1936538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Heather Winskel
- Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Declan Forrester
- Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Madelyn Hong
- Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Kourtney O'Connor
- Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
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10
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Barbosa Escobar F, Velasco C, Motoki K, Byrne DV, Wang QJ. The temperature of emotions. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0252408. [PMID: 34081750 PMCID: PMC8174739 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Emotions and temperature are closely related through embodied processes, and people seem to associate temperature concepts with emotions. While this relationship is often evidenced by everyday language (e.g., cold and warm feelings), what remains missing to date is a systematic study that holistically analyzes how and why people associate specific temperatures with emotions. The present research aimed to investigate the associations between temperature concepts and emotion adjectives on both explicit and implicit levels. In Experiment 1, we evaluated explicit associations between twelve pairs of emotion adjectives derived from the circumplex model of affect, and five different temperature concepts ranging from 0°C to 40°C, based on responses from 403 native speakers of four different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese). The results of Experiment 1 revealed that, across languages, the temperatures were associated with different regions of the circumplex model. The 0°C and 10°C were associated with negative-valanced, low-arousal emotions, while 20°C was associated with positive-valanced, low-to-medium-arousal emotions. Moreover, 30°C was associated with positive-valanced, high-arousal emotions; and 40°C was associated with high-arousal and either positive- or negative-valanced emotions. In Experiment 2 (N = 102), we explored whether these temperature-emotion associations were also present at the implicit level, by conducting Implicit Association Tests (IATs) with temperature words (cold and hot) and opposing pairs of emotional adjectives for each dimension of valence (Unhappy/Dissatisfied vs. Happy/Satisfied) and arousal (Passive/Quiet vs. Active/Alert) on native English speakers. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that participants held implicit associations between the word hot and positive-valanced and high-arousal emotions. Additionally, the word cold was associated with negative-valanced and low-arousal emotions. These findings provide evidence for the existence of temperature-emotion associations at both explicit and implicit levels across languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Barbosa Escobar
- Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- * E-mail:
| | - Carlos Velasco
- Department of Marketing, Centre for Multisensory Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway
| | - Kosuke Motoki
- Department of Food Science and Business, Miyagi University, Sendai, Japan
| | - Derek Victor Byrne
- Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Qian Janice Wang
- Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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11
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Kamatani M, Ito M, Miyazaki Y, Kawahara JI. Effects of Masks Worn to Protect Against COVID-19 on the Perception of Facial Attractiveness. Iperception 2021; 12:20416695211027920. [PMID: 34262683 PMCID: PMC8243111 DOI: 10.1177/20416695211027920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Wearing a sanitary mask tended, in the main, to reduce the wearer's sense of perceived facial attractiveness before the COVID-19 epidemic. This phenomenon, termed the sanitary-mask effect, was explained using a two-factor model involving the occlusion of cues used for the judgment of attractiveness and unhealthiness priming (e.g., presumed illness). However, these data were collected during the pre-COVID-19 period. Thus, in this study, we examined whether the COVID-19 epidemic changed the perceived attractiveness and healthiness when viewing faces with and without sanitary masks. We also used questionnaires to evaluate beliefs regarding mask wearers. We found that the perception of mask-worn faces differed before versus after the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. Specifically, mask-wearing improved wearers' sense of the attractiveness of faces, which were rated as less attractive when a mask was not worn after the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. Furthermore, mask-worn faces were rated as healthier after the onset of the COVID-19. The proportion of respondents with negative associations regarding mask-wearing (e.g., unhealthiness) decreased relative to before the epidemic. We suggest that the weakening of this association altered the sanitary-mask effect with a relative emphasis on the occlusion component, reflecting the temporal impact of a global social incident (the COVID-19 epidemic) on the perception of facial attractiveness.
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12
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Jonauskaite D, Camenzind L, Parraga CA, Diouf CN, Mercapide Ducommun M, Müller L, Norberg M, Mohr C. Colour-emotion associations in individuals with red-green colour blindness. PeerJ 2021; 9:e11180. [PMID: 33868822 PMCID: PMC8035895 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Colours and emotions are associated in languages and traditions. Some of us may convey sadness by saying feeling blue or by wearing black clothes at funerals. The first example is a conceptual experience of colour and the second example is an immediate perceptual experience of colour. To investigate whether one or the other type of experience more strongly drives colour-emotion associations, we tested 64 congenitally red-green colour-blind men and 66 non-colour-blind men. All participants associated 12 colours, presented as terms or patches, with 20 emotion concepts, and rated intensities of the associated emotions. We found that colour-blind and non-colour-blind men associated similar emotions with colours, irrespective of whether colours were conveyed via terms (r = .82) or patches (r = .80). The colour-emotion associations and the emotion intensities were not modulated by participants’ severity of colour blindness. Hinting at some additional, although minor, role of actual colour perception, the consistencies in associations for colour terms and patches were higher in non-colour-blind than colour-blind men. Together, these results suggest that colour-emotion associations in adults do not require immediate perceptual colour experiences, as conceptual experiences are sufficient.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lucia Camenzind
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
| | - C Alejandro Parraga
- Comp. Vision Centre/Comp. Sci. Department, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Cécile N Diouf
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
| | | | - Lauriane Müller
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
| | - Mélanie Norberg
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
| | - Christine Mohr
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
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13
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Polarities influence implicit associations between colour and emotion. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2020; 209:103143. [PMID: 32731010 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2019] [Revised: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 07/15/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Colours are linked to emotional concepts. Research on the effect of red in particular has been extensive, and evidence shows that positive as well as negative associations can be salient in different contexts. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the contextual factor of polarity. According to the polarity-correspondence principle, negative and positive category poles are assigned to the binary response categories (here positive vs. negative valence) and the perceptual dimension (green vs. red) in a discrimination task. Response facilitation occurs only where the conceptual category (valence) and the perceptual feature (colour) share the same pole (i.e., where both are plus or both are minus). We asked participants (n = 140) to classify the valence of green and red words within two types of blocks: (a) where all words were of the same colour (monochromatic conditions) providing no opposition in the perceptual dimension, and (b) where red and green words were randomly mixed (mixed-colour conditions). Our results show that red facilitates responses to negative words when the colour green is present (mixed-colour conditions) but not when it is absent (monochromatic conditions). This is in line with the polarity-correspondence principle, but colour-specific valence-affect associations contribute to the found effects.
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14
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Specker E, Forster M, Brinkmann H, Boddy J, Immelmann B, Goller J, Pelowski M, Rosenberg R, Leder H. Warm, lively, rough? Assessing agreement on aesthetic effects of artworks. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0232083. [PMID: 32401777 PMCID: PMC7219710 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The idea that simple visual elements such as colors and lines have specific, universal associations-for example red being warm-appears rather intuitive. Such associations have formed a basis for the description of artworks since the 18th century and are still fundamental to discourses on art today. Art historians might describe a painting where red is dominant as "warm," "aggressive," or "lively," with the tacit assumption that beholders would universally associate the works' certain key forms with specific qualities, or "aesthetic effects". However, is this actually the case? Do we actually share similar responses to the same line or color? In this paper, we tested whether and to what extent this assumption of universality (sharing of perceived qualities) is justified. We employed-for the first time-abstract artworks as well as single elements (lines and colors) extracted from these artworks in an experiment in which participants rated the stimuli on 14 "aesthetic effect" scales derived from art literature and empirical aesthetics. To test the validity of the assumption of universality, we examined on which of the dimensions there was agreement, and investigated the influence of art expertise, comparing art historians with lay people. In one study and its replication, we found significantly lower agreement than expected. For the whole artworks, participants agreed on the effects of warm-cold, heavy-light, and happy-sad, but not on 11 other dimensions. Further, we found that the image type (artwork or its constituting elements) was a major factor influencing agreement; people agreed more on the whole artwork than on single elements. Art expertise did not play a significant role and agreement was especially low on dimensions usually of interest in empirical aesthetics (e.g., like-dislike). Our results challenge the practice of interpreting artworks based on their aesthetic effects, as these effects may not be as universal as previously thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Specker
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- * E-mail:
| | - Michael Forster
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Hanna Brinkmann
- Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Jane Boddy
- Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Beatrice Immelmann
- Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Jürgen Goller
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Matthew Pelowski
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Raphael Rosenberg
- Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- MECS, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany
| | - Helmut Leder
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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15
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Nadarevic L, Kroneisen M. Easy on the mind, easy on the wrongdoer? No evidence for perceptual fluency effects on moral wrongness ratings. Cognition 2020; 196:104156. [PMID: 31981850 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 12/02/2019] [Accepted: 12/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Processing fluency-the subjective ease of information processing-influences a variety of judgments (e.g., judgments of familiarity, liking, and truth). A study by Laham, Alter, and Goodwin (2009) suggests that this is also true for moral judgments. More specifically, the authors found that discrepant perceptual fluency mitigates moral wrongness ratings. In five studies (total N = 694), we tested the replicability of this finding for different kinds of scenarios (moral versus conventional transgressions) and different perceptual fluency manipulations. In Studies 1a and 1b we manipulated fluency by text background, in Studies 2a and 2b by font type, and in Study 3 by word spaces. Critically, none of the studies replicated Laham et al.'s discrepant fluency effect on moral wrongness ratings. In turn, we found that moral wrongness ratings were strongly affected by participants' emotional responses to the scenarios. Taken together, the findings of our five studies cast very strong doubt on perceptual fluency effects on moral judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Meike Kroneisen
- Universität Mannheim, Germany; Universität Koblenz-Landau, Germany
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16
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Jonauskaite D, Parraga CA, Quiblier M, Mohr C. Feeling Blue or Seeing Red? Similar Patterns of Emotion Associations With Colour Patches and Colour Terms. Iperception 2020; 11:2041669520902484. [PMID: 32117561 PMCID: PMC7027086 DOI: 10.1177/2041669520902484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
For many, colours convey affective meaning. Popular opinion assumes that perception of colour is crucial to influence emotions. However, scientific studies test colour-emotion relationships by presenting colours as patches or terms. When using patches, researchers put great effort into colour presentation. When using terms, researchers have much less control over the colour participants think of. In this between-subjects study, we tested whether emotion associations with colour differ between terms and patches. Participants associated 20 emotion concepts, loading on valence, arousal, and power dimensions, with 12 colours presented as patches (n = 54) or terms (n = 78). We report high similarity in the pattern of associations of specific emotion concepts with terms and patches (r = .82), for all colours except purple (r = .-23). We also observed differences for black, which is associated with more negative emotions and of higher intensity when presented as a term than a patch. Terms and patches differed little in terms of valence, arousal, and power dimensions. Thus, results from studies on colour-emotion relationships using colour terms or patches should be largely comparable. It is possible that emotions are associated with colour concepts rather than particular perceptions or words of colour.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Christine Mohr
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
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17
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Jonauskaite D, Wicker J, Mohr C, Dael N, Havelka J, Papadatou-Pastou M, Zhang M, Oberfeld D. A machine learning approach to quantify the specificity of colour-emotion associations and their cultural differences. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:190741. [PMID: 31598303 PMCID: PMC6774957 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.190741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The link between colour and emotion and its possible similarity across cultures are questions that have not been fully resolved. Online, 711 participants from China, Germany, Greece and the UK associated 12 colour terms with 20 discrete emotion terms in their native languages. We propose a machine learning approach to quantify (a) the consistency and specificity of colour-emotion associations and (b) the degree to which they are country-specific, on the basis of the accuracy of a statistical classifier in (a) decoding the colour term evaluated on a given trial from the 20 ratings of colour-emotion associations and (b) predicting the country of origin from the 240 individual colour-emotion associations, respectively. The classifier accuracies were significantly above chance level, demonstrating that emotion associations are to some extent colour-specific and that colour-emotion associations are to some extent country-specific. A second measure of country-specificity, the in-group advantage of the colour-decoding accuracy, was detectable but relatively small (6.1%), indicating that colour-emotion associations are both universal and culture-specific. Our results show that machine learning is a promising tool when analysing complex datasets from emotion research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jörg Wicker
- School of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Christine Mohr
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nele Dael
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Organizational Behavior, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | | | - Meng Zhang
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Daniel Oberfeld
- Institute of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany
- Laboratoire ICube UMR7357 Université de Strasbourg, France
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18
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Carrito ML, Semin GR. When we don't know what we know - Sex and skin color. Cognition 2019; 191:103972. [PMID: 31228668 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2019] [Revised: 05/13/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
In 3 experiments, we examine how the abstract category of gender, grounded by the lightness-darkness dimension, derived from the universal sexual dimorphism of skin color, is represented and how such representations lead to visual accentuation processes, i.e. polarization of differences between male and female faces. In the first two experiments, we show that irrespective of whether grayscale male and female faces are presented sequentially or jointly, female faces are judged to be lighter than male faces when participants are asked to indicate the level of lightness of the faces. This pattern was found for the majority of participants who explicitly stated that men and women do not differ in skin color. The third experiment was designed to examine the cognitive consequences of what people implicitly 'know' with a perceptual accentuation study. Participants were provided with male and female faces of equal skin color. Subsequently, in a memory recall task, they were asked to select, from a row of several faces varying in skin color, the original face. They chose, as predicted, lighter versions of faces for females compared to the male faces. This research reveals that the evolutionarily based sexual dimorphism in skin color implicitly grounds gender categories and shapes implicit visual accentuation processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariana L Carrito
- Centre for Psychology at University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences - University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
| | - Gün R Semin
- William James Center for Research, ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 41, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal; Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, the Netherlands.
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19
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Specker E, Leder H. Looking on the Bright Side: Replicating the Association between Brightness and Positivity. COLLABRA: PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1525/collabra.168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study is a pre-registered replication of a study by Specker et al. (2018) that tests the hypothesis that brightness of colors is associated with positivity. Our results showed an implicit association between brightness and positivity in both Study 1 and Study 2, however, an explicit association between brightness and positivity was only found in Study 2, thereby replicating 3 out of 4 effects. To investigate these effects in more detail, we present a meta-analysis of both the original and the replication study. This indicated a large effect 1.31 [1.12, 1.51]. In addition, we used meta-analysis to assess potential moderators of the effect, in particular stimulus type (chromatic vs. achromatic) and measure type (implicit vs. explicit). This indicated that the effect is stronger when measured implicitly than when measured explicitly and that the effect is stronger when achromatic stimuli are used. In sum, we take these findings to indicate that there is a strong and replicable association between brightness and positivity. These findings offer researchers interested in the effect concrete tools when designing a study investigating the effect with regard to effect size estimates for power analysis as well as stimulus and measurement design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Specker
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, AT
- Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Vienna, AT
| | - Helmut Leder
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, AT
- Research Platform Cognitive Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, AT
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