• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.15-26
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• 2016

This study was performed to investigate whether aesthetic preference is related to the personality of an individual or not. Even though prior studies have reported that aesthetic preference for a certain style of art is associated with a personality factor, it is more important to focus on impressions and feelings about paintings than the style of art. The present study tried to examine how positive, negative, and neutral feelings about paintings are related to a personality factor, and that familiarity has an effect on aesthetic preference. After participants answered a Big-Five personality questionnaire, they then rated the preference for and familiarity about paintings which implied emotions. The results showed that individuals with higher scores of neuroticism preferred negative paintings. A preference for negative paintings is hard to explain, but this could be explained by results of this study. A hypothesis that familiar paintings would be more preferred is supported by the data. Aesthetic preference has both objectivity and the subjectivity. This study explained subjectivity through individual differences, and investigate art from a psychological point of view rather than conservative methods that sort paintings into art history.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.35-48
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• 2015

It is frequently found in daily life that people who experience good luck as lottery winners try to improve their background (e.g., home, car) but it has not been empirically validated why they do that. Present research attempts to explore the prediction that people who experience good luck expand the scope of attention to background and those who undergo bad luck shrink the scope of attention to adjacent objects. Findings from Experiment 1a indicate that participants who experienced good luck (won the rock-paper-scissors game) paid more attention to background and performed worse in the "find the hidden picture" (below FHP) task while those who underwent bad luck (lost the rock-paper-scissors game) paid more attention to objects, leading to better performance in the FHP task. It is also found in Experiment 1a that, if people washed their hands after experiencing good or bad luck, the opposite result occurred. Experiment 1b confirmed that the rock-paper-scissor game manipulated good and bad luck successfully and did not influence self-control. Experiment 2 shows that people who strongly believe in good luck performed poorly in FHP task while those who do not believe in good luck performed well in FHP task. Overall, three experiments support the proposed research hypotheses. Implications of the study findings for cognitive psychology and related fields including consumer and sports psychology are discussed.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.89-102
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• 2020

This study aimed to compare the effects of two emotion regulation strategies, namely, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in female college students. Specifically, the effects of these two emotion regulation strategies were tested and the intrapersonal factors related to the effects of these strategies were explored. The participants included 60 female college students. In Study 1, 40 participants were randomly assigned to each of the two different strategy groups, i.e., a between-subject design was employed. In Study 2, 20 participants were asked to use both strategies to regulate their emotion, i.e., a within-subject design was employed. The results revealed that both emotion regulation strategies effectively reduced negative emotion of emotional stimuli. However, the use of emotion regulation assessed with a questionnaire was not matched to the actual usage of regulation strategies examined with a task. Finally, the use of a suppression strategy was related to the extroversion psychological adaptive variable. Our findings suggest that the subjective assessment of the use of an emotion regulation strategy may not be the same as the actual use of an emotion regulation strategy. Furthermore, we demonstrated that when participants have an option to use both strategies, the cognitive reappraisal is more functional than expression suppression. This concurs with the previous findings on the effects of emotion regulation strategies.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.523-538
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• 2007

This study examined effects of gender and empathic emotional expression of an anthropomorphic interface agent on users. assessment of the agent. In addition, it examined effects of gender and emotional expression regardless of whether visual fidelity of the agent. In Study 1, The agents were manipulated by photographs of human face. The agent expressed empathic emotion by making an other-oriented emotional response congruent with another's perceived welfare. Subjects participated in a task with the agent and then they assessed the agent by rating interpersonal assessment scale. The result reported their preference to the female agent. In addition, they tended to make positive assessment to the agent of opposite gender. In the study 2, gender and expressed emotion of the agent with low fidelity was manipulated. Subjects participated in a task with the agent and then they assessed the agent by rating the same interpersonal assessment scale as study 1. The result reported their preference to the female agent. In addition, they preferred the agent expressing empathic emotion to the agent expressing self-oriented emotion or no emotion. Though the agent had low visual fidelity, its gender and expressed empathic emotion could make a significant effect on users' assessment.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.95-110
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to propose a proper method for the multilevel mediation analysis, for which the hierarchical method should be utilized, then MLM (multilevel modeling) approach as a hierarchical method has been popularly utilized until MSEM (multilevel structural equation modeling) approach was not proposed. This purpose was covered by three research questions about statistical methods, analytic procedure, and real example. First, MSEM statistical method was preferred to MLM method for its estimation accuracy and analytic flexibility. Second, the four-step procedures of model building, assumption examination, model comparison, and coefficient testing were proposed for the multilevel mediation analysis. Third, the real data of 2695 students of elementary and secondary schools and 89 teachers were analyzed in the multilevel directions of $2{\rightarrow}2{\rightarrow}1$ and $1{\rightarrow}1{\rightarrow}2$. Out of these directions of $2{\rightarrow}2{\rightarrow}1$, and $1{\rightarrow}1{\rightarrow}2$ model, only the coefficient of $2{\rightarrow}2{\rightarrow}1$ model was significant at the 95% CI. Mplus programs used for the real example are attached on the Appendix. Based on the results, significance and limitations of this study, were discussed in detail.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.15-28
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• 2014

This research was performed to identify the components and types of comfort foods and to verify gender differences on choosing comfort food in various emotional states. The total of 425 Korean college students participated in this study. The results are as follows. First, most students rated foods that give warmth and relaxation, foods that are reminiscent of happy memories, food that tastes good, were rated as types of comfort foods. On the other hand, external condition and fast food were less likely to be rated as a comfort food. Second, male students reported meat dishes, stew or soup, and alcohol as comfort foods whereas female students reported stew or soup, fruit or vegetable, and meat dishes as comfort foods. Third, the students chose different comfort food in different emotional states. In negative emotions, most students chose alcohol, chocolate, hot (spicy) food, and drinks as a comfort food. But in positive emotions, most students chose chicken as comfort foods. While male students chose alcohol as high ranking comfort food, female students chose various foods as their comfort food. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.37-48
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• 2019

Current research explores the effect of language on the perception of facial emotion as suggested by the psychological construction theory of emotion by using a psychophysical method. In this study, we hypothesize that the perception of facial expression may be influenced if the observer is shown an affective word before he/she judges an expression. Moreover, we suggest that his/her understanding of a facial emotion will be in line with the conceptual context that the word denotes. During the two experiments conducted for this project, a control stimulus or words representing either angry or happy emotions were briefly presented to participants before they were shown a target face. These target faces were randomly selected from seven faces that were gradually morphed to show neutral to angry (in Experiment 1) and neutral to happy (in Experiment 2) expressions. The participants were asked to perform a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task to judge the emotion of the target face (i.e., decide whether it is angry or neutral, or happy or neutral). The results of Experiment 1 (when compared with the control condition) showed that words denoting anger decreased the point of subjective equality (PSE) for judging the emotion of the target as anger, whereas words denoting happiness increased the PSE. Experiment 2, in which participants had to judge expressions on a scale from happy to neutral, produced a contrasting pattern of results. The outcomes of this study support the claim of the psychological construction theory of emotion that the perception of facial emotion is an active construction process that may be influenced by information (such as affective words) that provide conceptual context.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.47-62
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• 2022

Previous emotion studies revealed the two core affective dimensions of valence and arousal using affect-eliciting stimuli, such as pictures, music, and videos. Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a type of stimuli that has emerged recently, produces a sense of psychological stability and calmness. We explored whether ASMR could be represented on the core affect dimensions. In this study, we used three affective types ASMR (negative, neutral, and positive) as stimuli. Auditory ASMR videos were used in Study 1, while auditory and audiovisual ASMR videos were used in Study 2. Participants were asked to rate how they felt about the ten adjectives using five-point Likert scales. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) and classification analyses were performed. The results of the MDS showed that distinctions between auditory and audiovisual ASMR videos were represented well in the valence dimension. Additionally, the results of the classification showed that affective conditions within and across individuals for within- and cross-modalities. Thus, we confirmed that the affective representations for individuals could be predicted and that the affective representations were consistent between individuals. These results suggest that ASMR videos, including other affect-eliciting videos, were also located in the core affect dimension space, supporting the core affect theory (Russell, 1980).

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.39-52
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• 2023

According to the core affect theory, affect consists of two independent dimensions of valence and arousal. Previous studies have found that various types of stimuli, such as pictures, videos, and music, are mapped onto the core affect space. However, the research on affect using gustatory stimuli has not been explored sufficiently. This study investigated whether the affects elicited by tastes could be mapped onto the core affect space. Stimuli were selected based on two factors (taste types and intensity). Participants were presented with each stimulus, evaluated the tastes, and rated their affective responses on taste and emotion scales. The data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVAs and multivariate analyses (multidimensional scaling and classification). The results of univariate analyses indicated that participants felt positive for sweet stimuli but negative for bitter and salty. Furthermore, participants reported high arousal with high intensity. Multidimensional scaling revealed that taste stimuli are also represented on the core affect dimensions. Specifically, it was confirmed that in the first dimension, sweetness was represented as a positive affect, while bitter and salty tastes were represented as a negative affect. In the second dimension, bitterness was represented as low arousal and sourness as high arousal. Classification analyses confirmed that the taste was identified consistently based on the affective responses within and across participants. This study showed that the taste stimuli in daily life are also located on core affect dimensions of valence and arousal.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.53-68
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• 2023

Materialism can be triggered by various social events. Based on theories on functions of materialistic goal pursuit, this study investigates how social exclusion evokes desires related to one's identity, resulting in an increase in materialism. Specifically, we predicted that social exclusion would increase the desire for control and belonging, thus leading to higher levels of materialism. Moreover, based on the theory of the approach tendency of power, we further predicted that individuals with a higher sense of power would experience greater desires for belonging and control when faced with social exclusion. To examine the hypotheses, we conducted an experiment using 202 Korean women. The results indicated that social exclusion resulted in an increase in the desire for control, thus increasing materialism. This relationship is stronger for individuals with a high sense of power, and the path from social exclusion to materialism based on the need for control is significant for those with a high sense of power. Although social exclusion increases the need to belonging, the relationship between the need to belonging and materialism is not significant, and its mediating effect was not supported in this study. Based on these findings, we discussed implications and directions for future research.