Does social content influence the subjective evaluation of affective pictures?

  1. Vladimir Kosonogov 1
  2. José M. Martínez-Selva 2
  3. Ginesa Torrente 2
  4. Eduvigis Carrillo-Verdejo 2
  5. Juan Sánchez-Navarro 2
  1. 1 Higher School of Economics, National Research University
    info

    Higher School of Economics, National Research University

    Moscú, Rusia

    ROR https://ror.org/055f7t516

  2. 2 Universidad de Murcia
    info

    Universidad de Murcia

    Murcia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/03p3aeb86

Journal:
The Spanish Journal of Psychology

ISSN: 1138-7416

Year of publication: 2020

Issue: 23

Pages: 1-20

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1017/SJP.2020.6 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: The Spanish Journal of Psychology

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Abstract

This study explored the effect of the perceived social content of affective pictures on the subjective evaluation of affective valence and arousal. For this purpose, we established three categories of social content (pictures without people, with one person and with two or more people). A sample of 161 subjects rated 200 pictures varying in affective valence (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant), arousal and social content. Results of two-factor analysis of variance, F(4, 157) = 71.7, p < .001, ηp2 = .31, showed that perceived social content influenced the ratings of affective valence, specially for unpleasant pictures, with the greatest social content (two or more people) leading subjects to rate unpleasant pictures with the lowest ratings (all pairwise comparisons’ p < .001). Regarding arousal, F(4, 157) = 64.0, p < .001, ηp2 = .29), the higher the social content, the higher the arousal ratings, but only for pleasant (all pairwise comparisons’ p < .007) and unpleasant (all pairwise comparisons’ p < .001) pictures. Overall, this study demonstrated an effect of the perceived social content on the subjective evaluation of affective valence and arousal of emotional stimuli.

Funding information

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Vladimir Kosonogov. Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow (Russian Federation). E-mail: vkosonogov@hse.ru Acknowledgments.The study was supported by a FPU fellowship of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain in 2012-2015

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