Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

Facial masks have become and may remain ubiquitous. Though important for preventing infection, they may also serve as a reminder of the risks of disease. Thus, they may either act as cues for threat, priming avoidance-related behavior, or as cues for a safe interaction, priming social approach. To distinguish between these possibilities, we assessed implicit and explicit evaluations of masked individuals as well as avoidance bias toward relatively unsafe interactions with unmasked individuals in an approach-avoidance task in an online study. We further assessed Covid19 anxiety and specific attitudes toward mask-wearing, including mask effectiveness and desirability, hindrance of communication from masks, aesthetic appeal of masks, and mask-related worrying. Across one sample of younger (18–35 years, N = 147) and one of older adults (60+ years, N = 150), we found neither an average approach nor avoidance bias toward mask-wearing compared to unmasked individuals in the indirect behavior measurement task. However, across the combined sample, self-reported mask-related worrying correlated with reduced avoidance tendencies toward unmasked individuals when Covid19 anxiety was low, but not when it was high. This relationship was specific to avoidance tendencies and was not observed in respect to explicit or implicit preference for mask-wearing individuals. We conclude that unsafe interaction styles may be reduced by targeting mask-related worrying with public interventions, in particular for populations that otherwise have low generalized Covid19 anxiety.

Symmetry and Artistic Elongation of the Human Form: Exploring the Attainment of Aesthetic Appeal

Although typically associated with the Mannerist artistic style of the Renaissance, artists throughout history have created pictures and sculptures of humans depicted in an unrealistic and abnormally elongated form. The scientific basis for adopting this form of distortion is discussed here. First, probably subconsciously, artists have appreciated that the human form displays a symmetry which is often aesthetically pleasing. Second, perceived beauty is enhanced when the symmetrical image is elongated. There is evidence that the appeal of artworks which feature these characteristics can be attributed to their ease of cerebral processing, a view supported by functional MRI studies indicating there is an overlap between regions of the brain devoted to processing of symmetry and those devoted to appreciation of beauty.

GIS-Based Aesthetic Appraisal of Short-Range Viewsheds of Coastal Dune and Forest Landscapes

This paper demonstrates the possibilities of a Geographical Information System (GIS) for investigating and explicating the spatial variation of the short-range viewshed aesthetic appeal in a World Heritage coastal dune and forest area. The study pursues the following objectives: (1) develop and trial a GIS-based algorithm for computing the Aesthetic Appeal Index for a Short-Range Viewshed (ǣ); (2) deliver an output map showing the spatial variation of the computed ǣ values in the target territory and distribution of the zones with high scenic quality and potential aesthetic ecosystem services (PAES); and (3) assess management alternatives in zones with high PAES and high conservation value. This study combines two key innovative aspects. First, it integrates an objective digital map of habitats with subjective scenic preferences of coastal forest and dune landscapes based on psychophysical and cognitive perceptions of scenic beauty. Second, it applies a GIS-based algorithm to translate subjective scenic preferences to an output map of ǣ. The study’s main conclusion is that the combined aesthetic appraisal of the immediate and foreground viewshed of coastal forests and dunes, by applying a specially created GIS algorithm, allows an assessment of the scenic quality of this landscape reliably in statistical terms.

Assessment of the decorative qualities of species of the genus Pinus L. in the conditions of the European part of Russia

The paper presents the results of a study of the decorativeness of pines, which are actively grown on the territory of the European part of Russia. Decorativeness is based on the visual perception of plant habitus. The state of the habitus depends on the genotype and adaptive characteristics in certain growing conditions. The study examined 25 decorative features of 56 species. 24 traits were related to vegetative and generative organs. 1 trait was assessed by the method of weight taxonomy as an indicator of originality of all species for 24 traits. Studies have shown that the total score on a 100-point scale of decorativeness in the studied pines varies from 40 in Pinus heldreichii Chirst and Pinus waschoensis Mason & Stockwell to 68 in Pinus patula Schltdl. & Cham. The research results can be applied when choosing species for cultivation on landscaping objects to increase their aesthetic appeal.

Self-relevance predicts the aesthetic appeal of real and synthetic artworks generated via neural style transfer

What determines the aesthetic appeal of artworks? Recent work suggests that aesthetic appeal can to some extent be predicted from a visual artwork’s image features. Yet, a large fraction of variance in aesthetic ratings remains unexplained and may relate to individual preferences. We hypothesized that an artwork’s aesthetic appeal depends strongly on self-relevance. In a first experiment, observers viewed real artworks and rated them for aesthetic appeal and self-relevance. Aesthetic appeal was positively predicted by self-relevance. In a second experiment, we developed a method to create synthetic, self-relevant artworks, by using deep neural networks that transferred the style of exist- ing artworks to photographs. Style transfer was applied to self-relevant photographs which were identified based on autobiographical memories, self-identity, interests, common activities and pref- erences. Self-relevant, synthetic artworks were rated as more aesthetically appealing than matched control images, at a level similar to real artworks. Thus, self-relevance is a key determinant of aesthetic appeal, independent of artistic skill and image features.

Working Lives on the Mississippi and Volga Rivers. Nineteenth-Century Perspectives

Throughout the nineteenth century, major rivers assumed multiple roles for the emergent nation-states of the western world. The Thames in England, Seine in France, and Rhine in Germany all served as fodder for a growing sense of national identity. Offering a unity and uniqueness, the rivers were enlisted by poets, artiss, and writers to celebrate their country's strengths and aesthetic appeal. The Mississippi and Volga Rivers were no exceptions to this riverine evolution. At the same time, however, less vocal populations experienced the rivers differently. To African Americans--enslaved and free--laboring on the Mississippi offered a freedom of movement unknown to the land-bound. While employed on steamships, African Americans escaped the vigilance of an overseer with the possibility to escape bondage. Still the work was demanding and relentless. To the burlaki, the Volga was taskmaster and nurturer. But for both groups, laboring on the rivers resulted in connections that were immediate, intimate, exacting, often tedious and brutal concomitant with marginalized lives, consigned to society's fringe. Still, the lives shaped by working on these rivers, produced rich cultures revealing alternative riverine histories. In these histories, the rivers possessed an agency, enshrining an ambiguity in humans' kinship to the environment; a complexity often missing in the national narratives.

The Influence of E-Servicescape on Mobile Shopping Intention: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction

This paper aims to investigate, through aesthetic appeal, layout and functionality, interactivity and financial security, the impact of generation X perceptions of the e-servicescape in mobile shopping on perceived value and customer satisfaction following the sequence of the S–O–R framework. A survey involved 231 generation X respondents who shopped using mobile apps at least one mobile purchase in the past six months. The collected data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), Partial Least Square (PLS). The results revealed that aesthetic appeal, layout and functionality and interactivity could influence the perceived value and would lead to the mobile shopping intention, whilst customer satisfaction could impact the perceive value and mobile shopping intention through the mediating process. This research provides insight into the new effects of each dimension of e-servicescape on perceived value, customer satisfaction and the mobile purchase intention, thus improving the existing knowledge in the field of servicescape and mobile shopping customer behaviour.

From Visual Perception to Aesthetic Appeal: Brain Responses to Aesthetically Appealing Natural Landscape Movies

During aesthetically appealing visual experiences, visual content provides a basis for computation of affectively tinged representations of aesthetic value. How this happens in the brain is largely unexplored. Using engaging video clips of natural landscapes, we tested whether cortical regions that respond to perceptual aspects of an environment (e.g., spatial layout, object content and motion) were directly modulated by rated aesthetic appeal. Twenty-four participants watched a series of videos of natural landscapes while being scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and reported both continuous ratings of enjoyment (during the videos) and overall aesthetic judgments (after each video). Although landscape videos engaged a greater expanse of high-level visual cortex compared to that observed for images of landscapes, independently localized category-selective visual regions (e.g., scene-selective parahippocampal place area and motion-selective hMT+) were not significantly modulated by aesthetic appeal. Rather, a whole-brain analysis revealed modulations by aesthetic appeal in ventral (collateral sulcus) and lateral (middle occipital sulcus, posterior middle temporal gyrus) clusters that were adjacent to scene and motion selective regions. These findings suggest that aesthetic appeal per se is not represented in well-characterized feature- and category-selective regions of visual cortex. Rather, we propose that the observed activations reflect a local transformation from a feature-based visual representation to a representation of “elemental affect,” computed through information-processing mechanisms that detect deviations from an observer’s expectations. Furthermore, we found modulation by aesthetic appeal in subcortical reward structures but not in regions of the default-mode network (DMN) nor orbitofrontal cortex, and only weak evidence for associated changes in functional connectivity. In contrast to other visual aesthetic domains, aesthetically appealing interactions with natural landscapes may rely more heavily on comparisons between ongoing stimulation and well-formed representations of the natural world, and less on top-down processes for resolving ambiguities or assessing self-relevance.

Engaging with customer’s emotions

Informational-persuasive discourse may be encoded in promotional strategies through which a given product is described in a positive way to persuade potential customers. For this, evaluation may appeal to reason or may tickle emotions (Cook, 2001). This study compares the way in which advertising texts for herbal tea engage with customers’ emotions in English and in Spanish. We examined the strategies of ‘enjoying the experience’ and ‘aesthetic appeal’ from an Appraisal Theory approach (Martin and White, 2005). We categorised these according to the attitude sub-systems of ‘affect’, ‘appreciation’, and ‘judgement’, determined how explicit the evaluation was, and identified gradable resources. Results show that English texts display more ‘affect’-like resources that can awaken a desire in the customer. By contrast, in the Spanish sample ‘appreciation’ resources that evaluate the composition of the product play a greater role. ‘Enjoying the experience’ seems to engage with the customers’ emotions more overtly than ‘aesthetic appeal’.