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Dudarev V, Manaligod MG, Enns JT, Todd RM. In the hands of the beholder: Wearing a COVID-19 mask is associated with its attractiveness. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2021; 75:598-615. [PMID: 34289760 PMCID: PMC8915245 DOI: 10.1177/17470218211037128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Protective facial masks reduce the spread of COVID-19 infection and save lives. Yet a substantial number of people have been resistant to wearing them. Considerable effort has been invested in convincing people to put on a mask, if not for their own sake than for those more vulnerable. Social and cognitive psychologists know that use and liking go both ways: people use what they like, and they like what they use. Here we asked whether positive attitudes towards facial masks were higher in those who had been wearing them longer. We asked participants in a diverse sample (N = 498 from five countries and more than 30 US states) to rate how attractive and emotionally arousing masks and other objects associated with COVID-19 were in comparison to neutral objects, as well as reporting on their mask-wearing habits. To confirm reliability of findings, the experiment was repeated in a subset of participants 8–10 weeks later. The findings show that regular use of protective masks was linked to their positive appraisal, with a higher frequency and a longer history of wearing a mask predicting increased mask attractiveness. These results extended to other COVID-related objects relative to controls. They also provide critical ecological validity for the idea that emotional appraisal of everyday objects is associated with our experience of using them. Practically, they imply that societal measures to encourage mask wearing may have contributed to positive emotional appraisals in those who put them on, whether due to personal choice or societal pressure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Dudarev
- Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Maria Gm Manaligod
- Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - James T Enns
- Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Rebecca M Todd
- Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Driscoll RL, Clancy EM, Fenske MJ. Motor-response execution versus inhibition alters social-emotional evaluations of specific individuals. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2021; 215:103290. [PMID: 33711504 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103290] [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: 04/13/2020] [Revised: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Social-emotional evaluations of unfamiliar people are negatively impacted by ignoring or withholding motor-responses from images that depict them; an effect attributed to the propensity of inhibition to affectively devalue associated stimuli. Prior findings suggest that the social-emotional consequences of inhibition may operate on category-level representations that impact all members of a corresponding group. Here we assess whether such social-emotional consequences of motor-response action versus inaction also operate on item-level representations of specific individuals. Participants memorized individual identities of a group of fellow students before completing a Go/No-go response-inhibition task designed to associate item-level representations of each previously-memorized person with action (Go trials) or inaction (No-go trials). Social identities associated with action were consistently rated as more trustworthy in subsequent evaluations than those associated with inaction. This suggests that the social-emotional consequences of motor-response execution versus inhibition can operate on item-level stimulus representations in memory.
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Selective attention to real-world objects drives their emotional appraisal. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 83:122-132. [PMID: 33128216 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02177-x] [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] [Accepted: 10/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Attentional manipulations have been shown to influence subsequent evaluations of objects and images. For example, images used as distractors in a visual search task are subsequently rated more negatively than are target images. One powerful manipulation of attention occurs when we plan and execute movements toward objects in our environment. Here, in two experiments, we show that selective attention to real-world objects subsequently improves emotional appraisal of those objects-an effect we term "target appreciation." Participants were presented with abstract images on three-dimensional objects, and were cued to either reach and grasp one of the two objects, or to respond to the cued object with a keyboard. Images presented on target objects were appraised more positively when compared with novel images. In contrast, images associated with obstacles or distractor objects were not appraised differently than novel images, despite the attentional suppression thought to be required to successfully avoid or ignore these objects. We speculate that this automatic appreciation of the objects of selective attention may be adaptive for organisms acting in complex environments.
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Fan L, Zhang L, Diao L, Xu M, Chen R, Zhang X. Bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues concurrently determine state in visual working memory. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2020; 74:459-470. [PMID: 32988297 DOI: 10.1177/1747021820966264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Recent studies have demonstrated that in visual working memory (VWM), only items in an active state can guide attention. Further evidence has revealed that items with higher perceptual salience or items prioritised by a valid retro-cue in VWM tend to be in an active state. However, it is unclear which factor (perceptual salience or retro-cues) is more important for influencing the item state in VWM or whether the factors can act concurrently. Experiment 1 examined the role of perceptual salience by asking participants to hold two features with relatively different perceptual salience (colour vs. shape) in VWM while completing a visual search task. Guidance effects were found when either colour or both colour and shape in VWM matched one of the search distractors but not when shape matched. This demonstrated that the more salient feature in VWM can actively guide attention, while the less salient feature cannot. However, when shape in VWM was cued to be more relevant (prioritised) in Experiment 2, we found guidance effects in both colour-match and shape-match conditions. That is, both more salient but non-cued colour and less salient but cued shape could be active in VWM, such that attentional selection was affected by the matching colour or shape in the visual search task. This suggests that bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues can jointly determine the active state in VWM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingxia Fan
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.,Department of Public Administration, Ningbo Administration Institution, Ningbo, China
| | - Lin Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Liuting Diao
- Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Ruiyang Chen
- School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Xuemin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,Center for Cognition and Neuroergonomics, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China
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