The standardization of a new Explicit Pornographic Picture Set (EPPS)

Pictures with affective content have been extensively used in scientific studies of emotion and sexuality. However, only a few standardized picture sets have been developed that offer explicit images, with most lacking pornographic pictures depicting diverse sexual practices. This study aimed to fill this gap through developing a standardized affective set of diverse pornographic pictures (masturbation, oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, group sex, paraphilia) of same-sex and opposite-sex content, offering dimensional affective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance, as well as co-elicited discrete emotions (disgust, moral and ethical acceptance). In total, 192 pornographic pictures acquired from online pornography platforms and 24 control IAPS images have been rated by 319 participants (Mage = 22.66, SDage = 4.66) with self-reported same- and opposite-sex sexual attraction. Stimuli were representative of the entire affective space, including positively and negatively perceived pictures. Participants showed differential affective perception of pornographic pictures according to gender and sexual attraction. Differences in affective ratings related to participants' gender and sexual attraction, as well as stimuli content (depicted sexual practices and sexes). From the stimuli set, researchers can select explicit pornographic pictures based on the obtained affective ratings and technical parameters (i.e., pixel size, luminosity, color space, contrast, chromatic complexity, spatial frequency, entropy). The stimuli set may be considered a valid tool of diverse explicit pornographic pictures covering the affective space, in particular, for women and men with same- and opposite-sex sexual attraction. This new explicit pornographic picture set (EPPS) is available to the scientific community for non-commercial use.

An extended emotion-eliciting film clips set (EGEFILM): assessment of emotion ratings for 104 film clips in a Turkish sample

The primary aim of this study was to test emotion-elicitation levels of widely used film clips in a Turkish sample and to expand existing databases by adding several new film clips with the capacity to elicit a wide range of emotions, including a rarely studied emotion category, i.e., calmness. For this purpose, we conducted a comprehensive review of prior studies and collected a large number of new suggestions from a Turkish sample to select film clips for eight emotion categories: amusement, tenderness, calmness, anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and neutrality. Furthermore, we aimed to assess emotion-eliciting levels of short video clips, mostly taken by amateur video footage. In total, 104 film clips were tested online by rating several affective dimensions. Self-reported emotional experience was assessed in terms of intensity, discreteness, valence, and arousal. It was found that at least one of the existing film clips, most of the new film clips, and the short video clips were successful at eliciting medium to high levels of target emotions. However, we also observed overlaps between certain emotions (e.g., tenderness-sadness, anger-sadness-disgust, or fear-anxiety). The current results are mostly in line with previous databases, suggesting that film clips are efficient at eliciting a wide range of emotions where cultural background might play a role in the elicitation of certain emotions (e.g., amusement, anger, etc.). We hope that this extended emotion-eliciting film clips set (EGEFILM) will provide a rich resource for future emotion research both in Turkey and the international area.

Seeing emotions in the eyes: a validated test to study individual differences in the perception of basic emotions

People are able to perceive emotions in the eyes of others and can therefore see emotions when individuals wear face masks. Research has been hampered by the lack of a good test to measure basic emotions in the eyes. In two studies respectively with 358 and 200 participants, we developed a test to see anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise in images of eyes. Each emotion is measured with 8 stimuli (4 male actors and 4 female actors), matched in terms of difficulty and item discrimination. Participants reliably differed in their performance on the Seeing Emotions in the Eyes test (SEE-48). The test correlated well not only with Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) but also with the Situational Test of Emotion Understanding (STEU), indicating that the SEE-48 not only measures low-level perceptual skills but also broader skills of emotion perception and emotional intelligence. The test is freely available for research and clinical purposes.

Blunted startle reactivity in everyday sadism and psychopathy

Two studies examined the amplitude of the startle response as a function of the Dark Tetrad of personality (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism). We measured electromyographic activity of the orbicularis oculi muscle evoked by a startle stimulus while participants viewed images on a computer screen. Both studies revealed a negative correlation between general startle reactivity (averaged across positive, negative, and neutral images) and sadistic tendencies. In Study 2, all four dark traits were negative correlates of general startle reactivity. Study 2 also examined the personality correlates of aversive startle potentiation (ASP; indexed by greater reactivity while viewing negatively-valenced images than positive or neutral images). ASP correlated negatively with a variety of personality measures of psychopathy and sadism, their facets, and related personality tendencies (callousness, risk-taking, and restricted affect). These findings suggest that ordinary people with high levels of callousness and antagonism display physiological evidence of non-reactivity (i.e., blunted acoustic startle in general), whereas psychopathy and sadism are preferentially associated with reduced ASP.