Emotional Arousal Research Articles

Analysis of Students’ Emotional Patterns Based on an Educational Course on Emotions Management

Based on the current research trends and academic applications, which suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and enhanced through education and training, this academic project coded and analyzed the emotional patterns of 46 undergraduate students who attended an 18-week academic course on emotional management. A paired-sample t-test showed a significant increase from pre-course to post-course emotional intelligence scores, suggesting the importance of designing an academic course in formal educational settings. Analysis of students’ emotions journals indicated a total of 18 negative emotions, with the emotion of irritability occurring most frequently, followed by anger and anxiety. Loneliness, impatience, and guilt were some of the least felt negative emotions. The triggers for the arousal of negative emotions spanned family matters, interpersonal relations, academics, and communication skills, among others. The majority of the students used cognitive-behavioral and family systems theories in understanding and analyzing their emotional patterns. Students used various strategies to deal with the negative emotions, including developing communication skills, talking with family and friends, better time management, improving self-efficacy, cultivating a positive attitude, engaging in physical activities, etc. These results are discussed in this paper and the possible implications for practical purposes and further research are suggested.

Too Positive to Be Tweeted? An Experimental Investigation of Emotional Expression on Twitter and Instagram

ABSTRACT The literature on emotional expression on Social Network Sites (SNSs) is still in its infancy. It is assumed that SNSs are subject to a positivity bias: individuals share positive aspects of their lives on SNSs rather than negative ones. However, sentiment analysis studies have shown that this bias might not be appropriate for all SNSs, particularly Twitter. This research aimed to understand how the emotions of a message impact the choice of the SNS used to publish it. Four pre-registered experimental studies were conducted (N = 449). Participants were presented with a message – text and image – and asked if it were most likely to be published on Twitter or Instagram. The emotional valence of this message was manipulated in experiments 1a and 1b, as well as emotional arousal in experiments 2a and 2b. The results indicated that Instagram was preferred for positive messages. But the platform was also chosen for messages displaying low negative emotions, such as boredom or lassitude. Twitter was associated with messages displaying highly negative emotions, such as anger or distress. This research emphasizes the social norms that govern both platforms and demonstrates the interdependence between SNSs architecture, user motivations, and social context.

Factors influencing passage of time judgment in individuals' daily lives: evidence from the experience sampling and diary methods.

People often express feeling that time passes quickly or slowly in their daily lives, which is termed passage of time judgment (PoTJ). Past studies have shown that PoTJ is affected by emotional valence and arousal; however, few studies have verified the effects of alertness, attention to time, and time expectation on PoTJ and whether the effects are stable over different time periods. Using the experience sampling method (ESM) and diary method, the present study collected data from 105 participants and examined for the first time whether alertness, attention to time, and time expectation affect PoTJ based on daily life data, as well as whether above factors, emotional valence, and arousal are stable over different time periods. All participants answered a questionnaire five times a day on their in-the-day PoTJ and related factors regarding the last 30min, and answered the same questionnaire once a day at 23:00 regarding the of-the-day PoTJ. The results showed that alertness and time expectation, as well as emotional valence and arousal, predicted an individual's in-the-day PoTJ over a shorter period (i.e., the last 30min); in contrast, only time expectation and emotional arousal predicted of-the-day PoTJ over a longer period (i.e., the past day). These results suggest that, alertness and time expectation are important factors influencing PoTJ, in addition to emotional state. Of-the-day PoTJ correlates most strongly with the mean and latest in-the-day PoTJ, implying that overall perception of time passage is influenced by both cumulative temporal experience and recent temporal experience.

Examining the effects of negative emotion and interviewing procedure on eyewitness recall

AbstractWitnessing or experiencing a crime can be emotionally distressing and this emotional reaction can affect the formation and retrieval of event‐related memory. Extant eyewitness research, however, has generated inconsistent conclusions regarding the effects of emotional arousal on eyewitness memory. In the present experiment, we used a mock witness paradigm to attempt to remedy several methodological limitations that have persisted in the literature and shed light on the effects of emotional memory within an investigative interviewing context. Participants (N = 132) viewed either a Negative or Neutral video and either immediately or one week later provided their account of the video in a virtual interview procedure, consisting of either cognitive interview‐ based instructions or a free recall. Negative emotion was associated with selectively enhanced recall for the central aspects of the video. Participants who viewed the Negative video reported more details that were central to the target video than did those who viewed the Neutral video. The present findings highlight the potential for negative emotional events to lead to focally enhanced recall performance.

Eye movement verification and evaluation of initial sandplay picture system for internet addiction symptoms in Chinese adolescents

BackgroundSandplay therapy is a psychotherapeutic technique, based on the psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious. Nearly a century after it was developed, sandplay can now be applied for the initial diagnosis tools for sand players. The goal of the current research is to demonstrate the role of sandplay in identifying internet-addicted adolescents in China. The study aims to evaluate the reliability and validity for sandplay as a diagnosis and evaluation tool for internet addiction symptoms, and to verify the consistency that exists between results based on sandplay pictures and those based on the Pathological Internet Usage Scale for Adolescents (APIUS).MethodsThe research was conducted with a 2 × 2 mixed factorial design – two types of participants (addicts and non-addicts) and two types of sandplay pictures (pictures for addicts and pictures for non-addicts). An absolute recognition-judgment paradigm was used along with eye movement evaluations to evaluate the existing initial sandplay picture system for internet addiction symptoms (22 sandplay pictures, 11 related to addicts and 11 related to non-addicts, respectively). Sixty Chinese adolescents were selected as the participants (30 as addicts and 30 as non-addicts) according to the APIUS.Results(1) The initial sandplay pictures for internet addicts are clearly preferred by Chinese internet-addicted adolescents, which are more familiar and easier to process; (2) Such pictures have a higher level of emotional arousal and cognitive resonance for the addicts; (3) Track and heat maps indicate that young internet addicts mainly fixate on the initial sandplay pictures for internet addicts.ConclusionThis initial sandplay picture system can be used to screen and identify young Chinese internet addicts based on symptoms, and the evaluation results are consistent with those based on the APIUS.

Perception of avatars nonverbal behaviors in virtual reality

AbstractVirtual reality has shown great potential in many fields, especially in business and psychology. By immersing someone in a new computer‐generated reality, it is possible to create realistic, safe, and controllable simulations for research and training, as well as new three‐dimensional‐enriched consumer experiences and services. Most of these environments, especially in the metaverse, rely on virtual representations of people called avatars. The design and non‐verbal behaviors of these avatars must be carefully crafted to provide a realistic and truly immersive experience. This paper aims to understand how avatar nonverbal behaviors (i.e., body posture, facial expression, and head movement) are perceived by users immersed in a virtual reality context, a very common situation encountered in many simulations and especially during training. Therefore, the first objective of this study is to validate, through an experiment with 125 participants, how the audience's levels of emotional valence and arousal are perceived in virtual reality. Based on these results, a library of audience non‐verbal behaviors corresponding to different arousal and valence levels is now available for future applications. The experiment also examines the benefits of using low‐end versus high‐end virtual reality headsets, and photo‐realistic versus cartoon avatars. The results have implications for the design of realistic, challenging, and interactive virtual audiences.

Refugia: islands of social awareness in disrupted earth systems

An organisational leader's evolving mindset at times of significant systemic disruption frequently determines the quality and efficacy of the organisation's response to dramatic change. This article describes patterns of conscious and unconscious thinking, emotion, and containment in a group of business leaders during a disruptive earth system trauma. The context is the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes of 2010 through 2014 and the critical incident narratives that inform the mental stance leaders assumed with their organisations. There has been little research on leaders' evolving mental stance or how they "show up" in traumatic times, in terms of the practices and behaviours they exhibit, and how these in turn manifest as containing environments within disrupted systems. I call these environments "islands of social awareness". Within these refugia, the organisation, with its collective sense-making potential and action optionality, cooperates on the critical tasks of survival, human connection, and activation of resilience. I propose that turbulent social unconscious processes and the leader response to consequent emotional arousal ultimately underlie leaders' motivation and behaviour in times of disruption. These same perspectives may be applied to other complex earth mega-system crises, informing organisational preparedness for extraordinary events.

Research on the Influence of Social Media Emotion on Information Behaviour in Information Security Events

The popularity of the Internet leads to frequent information security events, and emotional differences under different information security events lead to behavioural differences. In order to study the influence of social media emotions on information behaviour under different event types, this study selected emotion-related behavioural data of microblog users based on two types of information security events. The results show that negative emotions negatively affect information adoption behaviour and positively affect information interaction behaviour. Positive emotions are the opposite; Low arousal positively affects information interaction behaviour. High arousal positively affects information adoption behaviour. Hacking events positively moderated the relationship between negative emotion and information interaction behaviour, low arousal emotion and information adoption behaviour. Data disclosure negatively moderates the relationship between positive emotion and information adoption behaviour, low arousal emotion and information interaction behaviour, and positively moderates the relationship between positive emotion and information interaction behaviour. It provides the basis for enterprises to “take appropriate medicine” in the face of different information security events, and has certain reference value.

Individual Differences in Emotion Attenuation Brought by Indirect Replies Is Related to Resting-State Brain Activity.

During daily conversations, people prefer indirect replies in face-threatening situations. Existent studies have indicated that recipients tend to perceive the information conveyed by indirect replies as negative and emotion regions are engaged in indirect replies processing in face-threatening situations. In this study, we examined whether indirect replies can reduce recipients' experience of negative emotion and what are the underlying cerebral structures that may give rise to individual differences in the effectiveness of such replies in attenuating negative emotion. Behavior ratings and resting-stating functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) techniques were combined to explore these questions. We created dialogues expressing refusal or negative opinion with direct/indirect replies. Participants were asked to rate their emotional valence and arousal when they received such replies. The rating scores were used to correlate with spontaneous brain activity. Results showed that indirect replies indeed attenuated recipients' negative emotion experience. Moreover, the left caudate, the right anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), and the connectivity of rACC and left medial prefrontal cortex (lmPFC) were found to be positively correlated to individual differences in such emotion attenuation. Our findings provide direct empirical evidence for the face-saving function of indirect replies and reveal that the intrinsic brain activities of emotion network and theory of mind (ToM) network are related to individual differences in such emotion attenuation.

Stress reappraisal improves the autonomic nervous system response of test anxious individuals: Evidence from heart rate variability

BackgroundStress belief plays an important role in stress response. This study investigated whether individuals with high test anxiety/low test anxiety (HTA/LTA) held different stress belief, and tested the effect of stress reappraisal on reducing test anxiety related autonomic nervous system (ANS) response. Methods51 HTA students and 49 LTA students were recruited using the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS). They completed a 10-min intelligence test (including preparation, test, and recovery phases), then were randomly assigned to reappraisal group and control group to complete the test again. Heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded throughout the protocol. Beliefs about Stress Scale was obtained before and after the experiment. Stress belief were manipulated using a 2-min film clip that orienting participant to the enhancing nature of stress. Emotional changes were assessed. ResultsHTA individuals held more negative stress beliefs and showed greater emotional arousal during the test than the LTA individuals. Their negative stress belief was associated with higher TAS score and worse HRV response. (2) When facing an exam, LTA individuals exhibited increased low-frequency HRV and stable high-frequency HRV, while HTA individuals showed stable low-frequency HRV and decreased high-frequency HRV. (3) HTA individuals who underwent reappraisal showed a reduction in test anxiety and in low-frequency/high-frequency HRV ratio. ConclusionsThe ANS activity of HTA individuals is imbalanced in the test situations. Stress belief is a meaningful variable in anxiety related ANS activity. Stress reappraisal can effectively reduce test anxiety and improve the balance of ANS activity of HTA individuals.

The relationship between food neophobia and hedonic ratings of novel foods may be mediated by emotional arousal

Seafood could support the transition away from terrestrial animal-source foods towards more sustainable protein sources. Food neophobia (FN), the reluctance to eat novel foods (which also extends to many familiar foods including seafood), is a known barrier to dietary change. This study investigates the relationship between FN and consumers’ acceptance of novel surimi-based products shaped to resemble pasta; and explores the role of emotional arousal experienced during tasting. Consumers (N = 211) completed the Food Neophobia Scale prior to the tasting session and were quasi-randomized to either the blind (N = 107; given no information about the content of the samples) or informed condition (N = 104; informed that the samples derived from fish), to ensure a similar FN distribution across groups. Respondents tasted three variants (pollock, cod, or salmon) of a surimi-based product at a central location in Sweden. Each sample was rated in terms of hedonics, experienced emotional arousal (from 1-relaxed to 7-anxious), overall perceived aroma and flavor intensity, and freely described for flavor character. Attitudes (positive/negative) towards the concept were also described by respondents with free text. In line with previous studies, results showed negative associations between FN and both hedonic ratings and purchase intention. Moreover, mediation analysis suggested that the relationship between FN and hedonic liking was indirectly explained by emotional arousal, implying that higher arousal may be mechanistic in describing how FN negatively impacts liking. The effect of FN was, however, not observed for the salmon sample which evoked higher levels of arousal overall and may have also been perceived as more familiar due to high salmon consumption in Sweden. These results support the arousal hypothesis of FN and contribute to further understanding the mechanisms underpinning FN, highlighting the relevance of incorporating emotional measurements in sensory evaluations.

Influence of stimuli emotional features and typicality on memory performance: insights from a virtual reality context

The present study tested the influence of stimuli emotional valence, emotional arousal, and typicality on memory recollection in three groups of participants exposed to the same environment through different modalities: in vivo exposure (i.e., real-life), 3D virtual reality (i.e., VR), and 2D pictures. Context-related free-recall, recognition accuracy, and recognition confidence were analyzed. The results showed that memory performance was best in the real-life modality, and participants in the VR and 2D pictures modalities performed comparably. Interesting effects of stimuli emotional valence and typicality emerged: in the VR and 2D pictures modalities, positive items were better recalled than negative items; typicality was relevant only in the real-life modality, with less common objects within the explored setting (i.e., an office) recalled more often. Furthermore, recognition accuracy and confidence were significantly higher in the real-life modality than in the VR and 2D pictures modalities. Further research is needed to support the creation of VR environments that are sufficiently comparable to real-life contexts in order to obtain higher ecological validity in studies of cognitive performance. In particular, the impact of stimuli typicality and emotional valence in VR contexts should be investigated to gain insight into how these features might improve memory recall in virtual scenarios.

Effects of Interactions with Cats in Domestic Environment on the Psychological and Physiological State of Their Owners: Associations among Cortisol, Oxytocin, Heart Rate Variability, and Emotions.

Interactions with animals, including cats, is believed to influence human health. However, studies that investigate the psychological and physiological effects of interacting with cats in their household environment are limited. In this remote study, 32 cat owners in Japan participated from June to October 2021. They completed two tasks, each on separate days in their homes: one simulating daily cat communication (Interaction condition) and another with no interactions (Rest condition). We quantified emotions (arousal level and pleasure level) before and after each condition using the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale Short-term as well as salivary cortisol and oxytocin levels of owners using enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay. Autonomic nervous activity (sympathetic and parasympathetic) was also quantified by heart rate variability analysis. The free interaction with cats decreased emotional arousal and parasympathetic activity, and lead to increased heart rates in owners. There was a positive correlation between heart rate and cortisol concentration, and between cortisol and oxytocin concentration. Furthermore, the frequency of petting the cats was negatively correlated with the rate of change in the parasympathetic activity. In contrast, the parasympathetic nerves in the owners were activated under the Rest condition. Hence, the mechanism of health-enhancing effects of cat ownership includes an arousing effect, in contrast to the previously proposed stress-reduction effect. This result can aid in future developments in cat-human relationship studies. However, a detailed study with a larger sample size is needed to draw definite conclusions.

Emotion Classification Based on CWT of ECG and GSR Signals Using Various CNN Models

Emotions expressed by humans can be identified from facial expressions, speech signals, or physiological signals. Among them, the use of physiological signals for emotion classification is a notable emerging area of research. In emotion recognition, a person’s electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) signals cannot be manipulated, unlike facial and voice signals. Moreover, wearables such as smartwatches and wristbands enable the detection of emotions in people’s naturalistic environment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary to detect people’s emotions in order to ensure that appropriate actions were taken according to the prevailing situation and achieve societal balance. Experimentally, the duration of the emotion stimulus period and the social and non-social contexts of participants influence the emotion classification process. Hence, classification of emotions when participants are exposed to the elicitation process for a longer duration and taking into consideration the social context needs to be explored. This work explores the classification of emotions using five pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN) models: MobileNet, NASNetMobile, DenseNet 201, InceptionResnetV2, and EfficientNetB7. The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) coefficients were detected from ECG and GSR recordings from the AMIGOS database with suitable filtering. Scalograms of the sum of frequency coefficients versus time were obtained and converted into images. Emotions were classified using the pre-trained CNN models. The valence and arousal emotion classification accuracy obtained using ECG and GSR data were, respectively, 91.27% and 91.45% using the InceptionResnetV2 CNN classifier and 99.19% and 98.39% using the MobileNet CNN classifier. Other studies have not explored the use of scalograms to represent ECG and GSR CWT features for emotion classification using deep learning models. Additionally, this study provides a novel classification of emotions built on individual and group settings using ECG data. When the participants watched long-duration emotion elicitation videos individually and in groups, the accuracy was around 99.8%. MobileNet had the highest accuracy and shortest execution time. These subject-independent classification methods enable emotion classification independent of varying human behavior.

Under My Skin: Reducing Bias in STEM through New Approaches to Assessment of Spatial Abilities Considering the Role of Emotional Regulation

Reducing gender bias in STEM is key to generating more equality and contributing to a more balanced workforce in this field. Spatial ability and its components are cognitive processes crucial to success in STEM education and careers. Significant gender differences have consistently been found in mental rotation (MR), the ability to mentally transform two- and three-dimensional objects. The aim of this pilot study is to examine factors in psychological assessment which may contribute to gender differences in MR performance. Moreover, findings will inform the development of the new approaches to assessment using computer adaptive testing (CAT). (1) Background: The study examines the impact of emotional regulation on MR performance in primary school children whose mean age was 9.28 years old. (2) Methods: Skin conductance was measured to assess the impact of emotional reactivity (ER) on performance during an MR task. (3) Results: Patterns of ER influence response time (RT) on specific items in the task. (4) Conclusions: Identifying the effects of emotional arousal and issues of test construction such as stereotyped stimuli and item difficulty in tests of spatial ability warrants ongoing investigation. It is vital to ensure that these factors do not compromise the accurate measurement of performance and inadvertently contribute to the gender gap in STEM.

Group counterattack to destination infringement events: media empowerment and emotional conduction regarding interactive ritual theory

ABSTRACT To explore the fomentation and diffusion process of tourism infringement incidents on social media, this study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed-method approach. Findings from in-depth interview and web text analysis indicated that destination crisis event on social media is fermented in three stages: emotional arousal, emotional interaction and emotional resonance. Further, quantitative research (PLS-SEM) yielded the impact of social norms, emotional motivation, ritual admission and emotional polarization on information empowerment, psychological empowerment and social empowerment, as well as the further reaction of tourist complaint and word-of-mouth (WOM). The current research contributes to the application and development of interaction ritual theory and empowerment theory in tourism field, and social media empowerment mechanism also provides inspiration for marketing and public opinion crisis management for tourism destinations.

How much is too much? The nonlinear link between emotional arousal and review helpfulness

Online reviews affect consumer purchase decisions and become prevalent in different sectors. Platforms elicit useful reviews by allowing consumers to vote for helpfulness. The link between review features and review helpfulness hence has been a topic of broad interest in information systems (IS) and Internet commerce. Psychological science studies show that expressed emotions in information – valence and arousal significantly influence receivers' engagement and valuation. Unlike valence (negative or positive) that is widely-analyzed, emotional arousal is a less-studied attribute of online reviews. This study presents a careful account of the nonlinear link between emotional arousal and review helpfulness. Following a rigorous procedure of theorizing and testing nonlinear relationships (Haans et al. 2016), we articulate latent mechanisms leading to an inverted U-shaped association and how valence would moderate the nonlinear effect of review arousal. We analyze reviews on experience goods from Yelp.com and find firm support for our hypotheses. The findings are triangulated using reviews on search goods from Amazon.com. While the nonlinear effect of review arousal and interactions with review valence are robust to both types of goods, an alternative moderation path of review valence on the inverted U-shaped relationship is observed. Our empirical study contributes to the literature by shedding lights on the dynamics among arousal, valence, review helpfulness, and product types, which illustrates a prototypical example to IS/e-commerce scholars on rigorously conceptualizing and estimating U-shaped links as well as their moderations.

Differential Effects of Musical Expression of Emotions and Psychological Distress on Subjective Appraisals and Emotional Responses to Music.

This study aims to investigate how musical expressions of emotion and individuals' psychological distress impact subjective ratings of emotional response and subjective appraisals, including familiarity, complexity, and preference. A sample of 123 healthy adults participated in an online survey experiment. After listening to four music excerpts with distinct musical expressions of emotional valence and arousal in a randomized sequence. Participants rated subjective emotions of energy, tension, and valence, as well as subjective appraisals, on a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 100. The results of repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated significant differences in emotional responses and appraisals across the ratings for different music excerpts (p > 0.01, respectively). The generalized linear mixed model results further revealed a significant main effect of musical valence on all emotional response dimensions of energy (β = -4.73 **), tension (β = 14.31 ***), valence level (β = -18.81 ***), and subjective appraisal in terms of familiarity (β = -23.06 ***), complexity (β = -6.67 ***), and preference (β = -19.54 ***). Musical arousal showed comparable results except for effects on emotional valence ratings. However, significant effects of psychological distress regarding depression, anxiety, and stress scores were only partially observed. Findings suggest that the expression of emotions through music primarily influences emotional responses and subjective appraisals, while the influence of an individual's psychological distress level may be relatively subtle.

Affective Impressions Recognition under Different Colored Lights Based on Physiological Signals and Subjective Evaluation Method.

The design of the light environment plays a critical role in the interaction between people and visual objects in space. Adjusting the space's light environment to regulate emotional experience is more practical for the observers under lighting conditions. Although lighting plays a vital role in spatial design, the effects of colored lights on individuals' emotional experiences are still unclear. This study combined physiological signal (galvanic skin response (GSR) and electrocardiography (ECG)) measurements and subjective assessments to detect the changes in the mood states of observers under four sets of lighting conditions (green, blue, red, and yellow). At the same time, two sets of abstract and realistic images were designed to discuss the relationship between light and visual objects and their influence on individuals' impressions. The results showed that different light colors significantly affected mood, with red light having the most substantial emotional arousal, then blue and green. In addition, GSR and ECG measurements were significantly correlated with impressions evaluation results of interest, comprehension, imagination, and feelings in subjective evaluation. Therefore, this study explores the feasibility of combining the measurement of GSR and ECG signals with subjective evaluations as an experimental method of light, mood, and impressions, which provided empirical evidence for regulating individuals' emotional experiences.

Emotional arousal and valence in patients with fibromyalgia: a pilot study.

The pathogenesis of pain in fibromyalgia is still not completely understood. A disrupted emotional modulation could affect the physiology of nociception and contributes to an altered perception of pain. The aim of this study was to test the role of emotional arousal and valence in pain susceptibility in fibromyalgia using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) paradigm and the Fibromyalgia Severity Scale (FSS). The study focused on comparing emotional arousal and valence between patients with fibromyalgia and the control group. The secondary objective was to examine the correlation between emotional indices and scores on the FSS and the duration of the disease. The 20 patients with fibromyalgia enrolled showed a higher mean arousal score for all the stimuli, including a higher score for unpleasant and socially unpleasant stimuli. The valence scores for social-relevant stimuli were also higher. Increased arousal to unpleasant and socially unpleasant images and increased valence of them correlated with the duration of the disease and the severity of symptoms and could reflect impairment in social cognition and marked sensitivity to pain in interaction with central nociceptive dysregulation.