The impact of online reviews on destination trust and travel intention: The moderating role of online review trustworthiness

This study explores the impact of the valence (positive/negative) and emotional intensity (strong/weak) of online reviews on potential Chinese visitors’ travel intentions and trust of a destination. An experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. Findings suggest that online review valence and emotional intensity affect travel intentions and that destination trust can partially mediate this relationship. Changes in destination trust and travel intention due to positive/negative review emotional intensity changes are not equivalent. Furthermore, online review trustworthiness moderates the valence and destination trust and travel intention relationships, but not the effect of review emotional intensity on the same outcomes.

Emotion Regulation Choice in Internet Addiction: Less Reappraisal, Lower Frontal Alpha Asymmetry

Individuals with internet addiction (IA) show difficulties in emotion regulation. However, they could effectively employ emotion regulation strategies when instructed. We speculate that this discrepancy might be caused by maladaptive emotion regulation choices. Recent studies indicated that decreased activity of the left frontal cortex could be a neural marker of reappraisal use. To address this problem, individuals with IA ( n = 17, IA group) and healthy individuals ( n = 23, healthy control [HC] group) were required to choose an emotion regulation strategy between reappraisal and distraction to regulate their emotions varying in emotional intensity and valence. We also compared the resting state frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) of these 2 groups. The results replicated more choices of reappraisal in low- versus high-intensity emotional contexts across groups. More importantly, the IA group chose reappraisal less frequently compared with the HC group, irrespective of emotional intensity. Furthermore, we found individuals with IA have lower FAA than healthy controls, and FAA shows a positive correlation with the use of reappraisal. These findings suggest that IA alters individuals’ patterns of emotion regulation choice and impairs frontal activities, causing difficulties in emotion regulation.

Drawing, Play-Dough, and Koosh Balls: The Use of Comfort Tools with Children in Forensic and Clinical Interviews

<p>During forensic and clinical interviews, children are often required to discuss difficult topics that may elicit feelings of shame, embarrassment, or reluctance. It is the clinician’s or forensic interviewer’s task to obtain detailed and accurate reports from these children, with many employing the use of comfort tools (e.g. drawing, play-dough, koosh balls) to put children at ease (Hill & Brown, 2017; Poole & Dickinson, 2014). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether three commonly used comfort tools influence children’s reports of a self-selected, emotionally laden event. Ninety-two children aged between 5 and 7 years old were asked to discuss a time when they got into trouble, and a time when they were happy. Some children were questioned without any comfort tools; the remainder were given one of the following: drawing materials, play-dough, or a koosh ball to interact with during the interview. Comfort tools had no impact on the amount of information reported by children. They also had no influence on whether children provided more episodic information (which may be especially relevant in forensic interviews), or evaluative information (which may be more relevant in clinical contexts). Providing comfort tools did not influence children’s ratings of either their interview experience, or the emotional intensity of the events they described. The interviewer asked more questions of children interviewed with drawing materials than those interviewed without comfort tools. The findings raise questions about the efficacy of comfort tools in interviews with children about past events, although more research is needed to establish an evidence-base to guide practitioners in different settings.</p>

Drawing, Play-Dough, and Koosh Balls: The Use of Comfort Tools with Children in Forensic and Clinical Interviews

<p>During forensic and clinical interviews, children are often required to discuss difficult topics that may elicit feelings of shame, embarrassment, or reluctance. It is the clinician’s or forensic interviewer’s task to obtain detailed and accurate reports from these children, with many employing the use of comfort tools (e.g. drawing, play-dough, koosh balls) to put children at ease (Hill & Brown, 2017; Poole & Dickinson, 2014). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether three commonly used comfort tools influence children’s reports of a self-selected, emotionally laden event. Ninety-two children aged between 5 and 7 years old were asked to discuss a time when they got into trouble, and a time when they were happy. Some children were questioned without any comfort tools; the remainder were given one of the following: drawing materials, play-dough, or a koosh ball to interact with during the interview. Comfort tools had no impact on the amount of information reported by children. They also had no influence on whether children provided more episodic information (which may be especially relevant in forensic interviews), or evaluative information (which may be more relevant in clinical contexts). Providing comfort tools did not influence children’s ratings of either their interview experience, or the emotional intensity of the events they described. The interviewer asked more questions of children interviewed with drawing materials than those interviewed without comfort tools. The findings raise questions about the efficacy of comfort tools in interviews with children about past events, although more research is needed to establish an evidence-base to guide practitioners in different settings.</p>

Aesthetic appraisals of literary style and emotional intensity in narrative engagement are neurally dissociable

Humans are deeply affected by stories, yet it is unclear how. In this study, we explored two aspects of aesthetic experiences during narrative engagement - literariness and narrative fluctuations in appraised emotional intensity. Independent ratings of literariness and emotional intensity of two literary stories were used to predict blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal changes in 52 listeners from an existing fMRI dataset. Literariness was associated with increased activation in brain areas linked to semantic integration (left angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and precuneus), and decreased activation in bilateral middle temporal cortices, associated with semantic representations and word memory. Emotional intensity correlated with decreased activation in a bilateral frontoparietal network that is often associated with controlled attention. Our results confirm a neural dissociation in processing literary form and emotional content in stories and generate new questions about the function of and interaction between attention, social cognition, and semantic systems during literary engagement and aesthetic experiences.

Your suffering is also mine: Older and younger couples’ responses to the partner’s upsetting memory

Aging theories posit that older adults maximize their well-being by regulating their emotions and investing in their closest relationships. Most research has examined these mechanisms using study confederates rather than close dyads. The existing work on couples has focused on marital conflict; none has examined responses to the spouse’s emotional suffering. To address this, 107 married couples ages 40-86 listened to their partner disclose an upsetting personal memory. Afterward, listeners rated their own and their partner’s emotions and perspective-taking; observers reliably coded listeners’ engagement and disclosers’ emotional intensity. Aging theories offer competing predictions: older listeners may disengage from their partner’s disclosure to avoid experiencing negative emotions. Alternatively, older adults may be more engaged and thus more reactive, given the increased investment in their close relationships. Findings showed that older listeners rated their disclosing partner as less sad compared to younger counterparts (p &lt; .05). However, this effect was attenuated (p = .077) by observed emotional intensity, as older disclosers exhibited less intense emotions. There were no age differences in listeners’ own reactivity, perspective-taking, or observed engagement. Taken together, older adults disclosed with less emotional intensity, consistent with theory. By contrast, older listeners’ ratings were validated by external coders, not driven by positivity biases. Further, older listeners were no more or less engaged or reactive to their spouse’s disclosure than younger listeners. This study highlights a context wherein social and emotional motivations are at odds. Teasing these motivations apart will help us to better understand how social-emotional processes develop across adulthood.

In theatre there is no “I cannot”, there is only self-limitation! - Alexander Hausvater Portrait

Risk stands at the beginning of creation – this is the first thing you learn by working with Hausvater, immediately followed by another one of his sayings: In theatre there is no I cannot, there is only self-limitation! Maybe exactly between these two „rules” the world named Alexander Hausvater flourishes, and these „rules” have enough strength and generosity to „contaminate” ourselves, the ones who stand beside him. The art that is proposed by the director Alexander Hausvater is of maximum emotional intensity, very bold and his stagings highlight what is happening here and now, in us, in the society, no matter if we reffer to either staging The Decameron or a contemporary script. His theatre performances are sharp, necessary, and especially, fulfill the meaning of theatre, in the way Hausvater sees it - to remove people out of their inertia and to transform them in “ a being that articulates” and that carries within itself the beauty and the decay of the whole world.

Elements of Surprise : Industrial Designers’ Strategies for Eliciting Surprise Through Interaction

<p>Fascinating designs can break our expectations and elicit a sense of surprise that first invokes our interest, increases the emotional intensity of an experience and may affect how we interact with our surroundings. Design researchers have identified the importance of surprise. Valuable studies have been carried out on the role of surprise as a design strategy (Ludden, Schifferstein, & Hekkert, 2008), on how appearance elicits emotions including surprise (Desmet, 2002; Desmet, Porcelijn, & van Dijk, 2005) and on the role of sensory incongruity in eliciting surprise (Ludden, 2008). Some characteristics of eliciting surprise can be beneficial to a product’s success. However, little research has been done into the strategies designers can use when attempting to elicit surprise through interaction, or how the experience of surprise affects how people interact with products. My research addresses two main questions. The first question is: how can designers attempt to elicit surprise through interaction? Through a set of 30 interviews worldwide, participatory research through design at design studios and collaboration with design students, I have developed a set of strategies that address this question. The strategies are the result of an analysis following a Postmodern Grounded Theory methodology, namely Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2003, 2005). My research suggests that design organisations address surprise in interaction according to their main concerns. While large design organisations reported little interest in eliciting surprise, design studios with specific characteristics constantly attempted to elicit surprise through their products. I suggest 22 strategies that designers can use when attempting to elicit surprise. The strategies are presented as cards for easy access by practicing designers and design students alike. The second question is, once surprise is elicited through interaction, how does the experience of surprise affect the way people interact with an object? I addressed this question through designing a number of products, testing them with people and assessing what different interactions resulted. My research suggests that through eliciting surprise, designers can support what people do, indicate unambiguously what ought to be done, subtly suggest what to do or attempt to persuade. The role of surprise varies for each of these intentions. Finally, my research suggests that surprise can be seen as a threat-detecting mechanism when trying to discourage people to engage in an activity; surprise can also be addressed as a sense-making process when attempting to persuade.</p>

Elements of Surprise : Industrial Designers’ Strategies for Eliciting Surprise Through Interaction

<p>Fascinating designs can break our expectations and elicit a sense of surprise that first invokes our interest, increases the emotional intensity of an experience and may affect how we interact with our surroundings. Design researchers have identified the importance of surprise. Valuable studies have been carried out on the role of surprise as a design strategy (Ludden, Schifferstein, & Hekkert, 2008), on how appearance elicits emotions including surprise (Desmet, 2002; Desmet, Porcelijn, & van Dijk, 2005) and on the role of sensory incongruity in eliciting surprise (Ludden, 2008). Some characteristics of eliciting surprise can be beneficial to a product’s success. However, little research has been done into the strategies designers can use when attempting to elicit surprise through interaction, or how the experience of surprise affects how people interact with products. My research addresses two main questions. The first question is: how can designers attempt to elicit surprise through interaction? Through a set of 30 interviews worldwide, participatory research through design at design studios and collaboration with design students, I have developed a set of strategies that address this question. The strategies are the result of an analysis following a Postmodern Grounded Theory methodology, namely Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2003, 2005). My research suggests that design organisations address surprise in interaction according to their main concerns. While large design organisations reported little interest in eliciting surprise, design studios with specific characteristics constantly attempted to elicit surprise through their products. I suggest 22 strategies that designers can use when attempting to elicit surprise. The strategies are presented as cards for easy access by practicing designers and design students alike. The second question is, once surprise is elicited through interaction, how does the experience of surprise affect the way people interact with an object? I addressed this question through designing a number of products, testing them with people and assessing what different interactions resulted. My research suggests that through eliciting surprise, designers can support what people do, indicate unambiguously what ought to be done, subtly suggest what to do or attempt to persuade. The role of surprise varies for each of these intentions. Finally, my research suggests that surprise can be seen as a threat-detecting mechanism when trying to discourage people to engage in an activity; surprise can also be addressed as a sense-making process when attempting to persuade.</p>

William Carleton, Irish song, and the art of keening

William Carleton was evidently familiar with wide traditions of Irish-language song, particularly through the singing in Irish of his mother. and this experience is evident throughout his writings. In addition to the explicit citation and celebrations of song in his work are less immediately recognised ways in which Carleton absorbed traditions of Irish singing into his fiction, particularly the form of caoineadh, or laments for the dead. Relatively few examples of early caointe (keens) have survived from the province of Ulster. However, this chapter argues that the practices of early nineteenth-century keening, as performed in Ulster, can be glimpsed in the novels and short stories of William Carleton. Close comparison of an extended fictional prose description in Valentine M’Clutchy (1845) with various accounts of caointe (Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire by Eibhlín Dhubh and a declamation recorded in 1828 by the County Kilkenny schoolmaster Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin) indicates Carleton’s evident knowledge of Irish traditions of lament. Irish song is shown to be typified by its lyric, non-narrative form and to be marked with particular emotional intensity, elements still visible within the prose recreations in English of Carleton’s fiction.