Lights Out: The Effects of Brightness on Judging Morally Ambiguous Behavior

Just this passed semester, your blog team had conducted a research based on a question posed Banerjee, Chatterjee, and Sinha (2012) regarding the association of brightness and darkness to moral judgment.

Given that light and dark appear to be linked to moral behavior, can ambient light affect the perception and evaluation of morally ambiguous behaviors?

 Their original study showed that when participants were asked to recall a good deed they have done in the past, they judged the room they were in to be brighter while participants who were asked to recall a morally wrong behavior in the past, judged the room to be darker (Banerjee, et. al., 2012).

Our research aimed to find out whether the brightness of the room affected the participants' judgments of a morally ambiguous behavior, and guess what? It did, and what more, participants who were in the bright condition gave softer, kinder forms of punishment and were more inclined to give a reward to the doer of the morally ambiguous behavior while participants in the dark condition gave harsher, stricter punishments and none were inclined to give any form of reward to the doer of the ambiguous behavior.

Light and dark have always been connected with good and evil. In media, villains, demons and evil are always depicted in dark colors while protagonists, angels and goodness are depicted in a brighter more vibrant manner.

Can you tell which ones are the angels of Paradiso and which ones are the infernal demons of Inferno from the pictures on the left? The pictures come from a game called Bayonetta and in this game, Paradise and angels are depicted in bright hues of white and gold while demons and infernal representations are depicted in hues of black, purple and red. In the Holy Bible, Jesus is known as the "Light of the world" while Lucifer is known as the "Prince of darkness" who disguises himself as an "Angel of light" to trick the people of the world. When I tell you to imagine heaven, do you imagine a dark and dim place or a bright, well-lit place?

Yin (black) and Yang (white): Respectively, negative and positive energies

The call of nature

Literally. As in, the sounds of nature?

Not pooping, no sir.

some makes-me-happy nature sounds:

• raindrops hitting the top of my umbrella. 
• gravel crunching under car tires.
• soft thunder from a [really really far] distance. 
• muted sounds when you're underwater

Okaaaaaay, I think that was enough disclosure.

Close na ba tayo? :">

JK!

So, why did I just share with you some of my favorite nature sounds? Well, I came across this study by Alvarsson, Wiens, and Nilsson (2010).

But before that, a quick interview.

Q: Have you ever googled nature sounds to help you relax/fall asleep/keep you from going insane?
A: YES!

(Because I'm psychic, I answered your answer to my own question while you were thinking it.)

But why?

According to the findings of Alvarsson et al. (2010),

NATURE SOUNDS RELIEVE STRESS! 

[Students rejoice!] 

And guess what? Their experimental stressor was a mental math speed test. So legit.

What's interesting about this study is that they were able to measure physiological recovery (perception to physiology). They attached instruments measuring sympathetic and parasympathetic activity to the participant's bodies and studied the effects of playing the different sound types.

Based on their results, they concluded that nature sounds, as opposed to noise, facilitated a faster recovery of the sympathetic system. However, the results were not significant for that of the parasympathetic system.

The researchers suggest that positive emotions arise from hearing these sounds.

I wouldn't want to be the person that gets dumped or dumps someone in a park :-(
(Future ex-boyfriend, please take note!)


Check out http://www.freesound.org for a sound database

Check out Peter Cusack's super awesome sound map [literally a map with sounds!] project at http://www.petercusack.org/

& you could also check this out!

[watch the clip from about 11:26 to 12:55]

Miles: New York City, East River. February 27, 1989. After 5 weeks below freezing, the ice finally breaking.

Instant. favorite. sound.

Thumbelina Sightings

Thumbelina

Kia: [Real-life Thumbelina?] Chos lang XD Bakit ang laki ng picture ko ang daya!!! Hahaha 

Is there really such a thing as a real-life Thumbelina? Or a minimized person that can fit into one's palm? Sorry to pop your bubble but they don't really exist. Reality isn't as magical as fairytales but thankfully, we can somehow escape from this objectivity through visual illusions. 

Visual illusions or more commonly known as optical illusions are a phenomena by which our visual system fabricates a three-dimensional interpretation of the world (Eagleman, 2001) based from the two-dimensional representation in our retina. Basically, it just means that our perception of the world does not tally with the actual size or depth or distance of these actual objects due to these illusions . We are also often fascinated by them since through visual illusions, we are effortlessly and easily challenged whether what we see is real (Bach & Poloschek, 2006).

Like in the picture above, we didn't actually find a pixie in school or invent a shrinking device, or even use CGI to create this effect (we can barely even use Photoshop). That's actually Sarj, one of the bloggers who went a couple of strides behind Kia and strategically posed to create this special effect. 

See? You can even see her shadow on the floor.

The perceived change in size of Sarj is due to her more distant position. Since she is farther from the observer's eye, she subtends a smaller visual angle than Kia, thus making her appear smaller. Well, visual angle is just the angle of an object relative to the observer's eye (Goldstein, 2010) or how the angle of the object of interest subtends at the eye.

Moreover, visual angle is influenced by the size of the stimulus and the distance of the object from the observer. The farther the object from the observer, the larger the visual angle it subtends, whereas when it is nearer, the visual angle is small.

Thumbelina: take 2

vs.

Thumbelina: take 3

Actually this trick has also been used by filmmakers such as Peter Jackson in the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to accomplish interactions between normal sized humans and in the case of the LOTR, hobbits without the use of CGI. You can see how this was done (and other interesting non-CGI effects) in this article in Cracked. 

It basically uses the concept of forced perspective, wherein optical illusions are used to make an object appear different in distance and/or size than the actual reality (Bell, 2011).

Frodo and Gandalf are perceived to be sitting side-by-side

Frodo is actually sitting several feet away from Gandalf to make Frodo look smaller

Try it at home!

Close one eye and form the forefinger and thumb of the hand opposite the closed eye into a letter C (or a backward letter C). Try fitting a distant object between that space and then when you're sure, approach the object without moving your fingers and see which is bigger!

Who is taller?

Who do you think is taller of the two ladies standing there? The one on the left or the one on the right (imagine they're wearing the same shoes)?

Actually, they are both the same height! You've been deceived by what we call the Müller-Lyer Illusion. This happens when our visual system judges fins or angles that are "protruding out" to be longer, but those that are "protruding in" to be shorter (Goldstein, 2010). 

Muller-Lyer Illusion: Can you tell at first glance which one of the vertical lines is longer?

It is also interesting to note that perception of Muller-Lyer illusion is influenced by culture (Masuda, 2009). Westerners or individuals who grew up in a "carpented" world, perceive lines with protruding fins as longer, since they have been regularly exposed to corners of rectilinear objects. One the other hand, some cultures (e.g. hunters-gatherers) are said to be immune to the Muller-Lyer illusion, suggesting that perception is influenced by environment and previous knowledge.

Real-life application!

Are you the shortest among your friends? Fret not! The next time you take a group picture, put your hands up into a Y. You'll look like you're having the time of your life and you'll probably gain a few centimeters in height*. To make it even more effective, ask your friends to help you out by keeping their arms in an invered V position.

*Results are not guaranteed!

A thumb for a head

Is her head really smaller than a thumb? Or about as big as a thumbnail? I think you already know the answer to this. [Hint: Thumbelina] But, you might be wondering, why?

Let us take into account again the concept of visual angles. The hand is nearer to the observer, thus having a greater visual angle. It then makes it look bigger than the face.

Hand x 4

Which one of these hands is first in line to have a meaningful conversation with you?

We assume you could probably guess it's the one on the left most part. How did you know that though? What if those hands were actually connected to one another and were actually only just one big hand?

The thing is, our brains are capable of perceiving depth and distance according to a number of factors.

What you've done in this case is actually judge a distance according to shadows, relative size and deletion. Your brain probably registered the shadows which were cast along the hands and judged that those were cast by the hands which are in front of them. 

Parting words and a disclaimer in between

Being able to perceive visual illusion is a gift.. You might have taken it for granted before, but people with autism are not really susceptible to these illusions (Mitchell & Ropar, 2005). I guess you can be thankful to your properly processing visual system, but visual illusion perception does not come from this alone. Your previous experiences, environment, and knowledge play a role in enabling you to perceive these. Visual illusions actually look convincing only if you want them to (Ganel, Tanzer, & Goodale, 2008). So really, you can believe there exists a Thumbelina in this world. :)

A crash course on Photoshop, this was not.

What do you do when you're asked to take pictures demonstrating depth and size?

Whip out your cellphones and take pictures, silly!

And that's what we did.

References:

Bach, M., & Poloschek, C. (2006). Optical Illusions. Visual Neuroscience, 2(6), 20-21. Retrieved from http://www.acnr.co.uk/pdfs/volume6issue2/v6i2visual.pdf

Bell, D. (2011). 8 Movie Special Effects You Won't Believe Aren't CGI. Retrieved from  http://www.cracked.com/article_19140_8-movie-special-effects-you-wont-believe-arent-cgi.html

Eagleman, D. (2001). Visual Illusions and Neuorobiology. Nature Reviews, 2(1), 920-926. Retrieved from http://physiology.elte.hu/gyakorlat/cikkek/Visual%20illusions%20and%20neurobiology.pdf

Ganel, T., Tanzer, M., & Goodale, M. (2008) A Double Dissociation Between Action and Perception in the Context of Visual Illusions: Opposite Effects of Real and Illusory Size. Psychological Science, 19(3) , 221–225. Retrieved from Ebsco database.

Goldstein, E. (2010). Sensation and Perception 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Masuda, T. (2009). Cultural effects on visual perception. Cultural Psychology, 339-343. Retrieved from http://www.ualberta.ca/~tmasuda/Masuda(2009).pdf

Mitchell, P. & Ropar, D. (2005). Visuo-spatial abilities in autism: a review. Infant and child development, 1-30. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/peter.mitchell/icd%20article.pdf

[Untitled image of Master Yoda]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2012 from http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111008200711/starwars/images/3/31/TPM-CGYoda.JPG

Colors can talk, too

Synesthesia--

a condition by which a stimulus can be perceived to be dipped into a melting pot of sensory triggers.

Or, as more formally defined by Eagleman and Goodale (in press), it is a "perceptual phenomenon in which stimuli can trigger experiences in non-stimulated sensory dimensions" (p.1). 

Basically, the stimulus not only plugs into its respective sense receptor (e.g. color and vision), but also triggers other senses (e.g. color and taste). 

There are several types of synesthesia (after all, there are a number of ways to mix and match our different sense receptors), but according to Eagleman and Goodale (in press), color synesthesia accounts for up to 95% of reported synesthesia experiences. I guess the color-related synesthete experiences are also better known because they are easier or more believably expressed in media. It might be because we can 'see' what they see thus making it more accessible and popular. 

I first encountered this term when I read A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass back in junior high. It's about a girl named Mia Winchell, who is a synesthete. The opening pages set up her dilemma--her unusual perception of colors had caused her to be labeled as a freak. Below are Mia's first thoughts when she found out that not everyone could see the colors like she did.  

How was this possible? Was everyone playing a trick on me? Of course numbers had colors. Were they also going to tell me that letters and sounds didn't have colors? That letter a wasn't yellow like a faded sunflower and screeching chalk didn't make red jagged lines in the air? (Mass, 2003, p. 3)

Even though she was labeled a freak, I seriously wanted to have synesthesia after reading that book. 

Please don't take drugs to simulate a synesthetic experience!!!!

Mia's synesthesia is what is called a grapheme-color synesthesia wherein words and numbers are associated with colors and these color perceptions are called photisms according to Flournoy (1893, as cited by Hupé, Bordier, & Dojat, 2011). 

According to previous studies and neuroimaging, when synesthetes see colors, the same area in the brain for color perception of non-synesthetes lights up. However, a study on 10 synesthetes by Hupé, Bordier, & Dojat (2011) has found that colors arising from a synesthetic experience do not light up this color area of the brain cortex that perceiving "real" colors does. The researchers give caution though, not to discount potential commonality between synesthetic colors and real colors that may be due to individual differences of the synesthetes or to the limited capability of the measuring instruments that are available.

So, does that mean that synesthetic colors cannot be the same as real colors? 

Well, not really. 

Weiss, Kalckert, and Fink conducted a study back in 2008 to test whether colors might trigger grapheme perception in grapheme-color synesthetes. After a careful selection process of words, the researchers asked the synesthetes to color the capital letters of the common high and low frequency words as well as other 'distractor letters' to closely match their respective synesthetic colors. They also colored each letter of the alphabet in the same manner. Each color-letter pair was then confirmed by the participant to be accurate.

In the task, a word fragment was presented which could either be completed by a letter for a high frequency word or that of a low frequency word. When the block for the missing letter was colored for the low frequency letter, synesthetes reported low-frequency words more than the high-frequency words, which would be expected if color was irrelevant. (This is the case of the non-synesthete control group).   

This study shows that the triggers for a synesthetic experience might be interchanged, emphasizing 'bidirectionality'. Of course, because the study was limited to a small sample of grapheme-color synesthetes, generalizability could be an issue. 

Nevertheless, isn't it interesting how colors could possibly talk? Imagine a synesthete going up to a painting and literally reading it (if by any chance it is coherent).

"Bright Picture" by Wassily Kandinsky (1913)

Amortentia

And --

body odor and rubber?

No, not unless that's how Ron Weasley smells like. 

According to the results of a study by Demattè, Österbauer, and Spence (2007), olfactory cues play a role in judging facial attractiveness, particularly unpleasant odors.

They designed an experiment wherein female participants had to rate the attractiveness of a male face presented on a computer monitor while simultaneously being exposed to one of four odors--clean air, male fragrance, body odor, and rubber. Each of the 16 participants was exposed to the three types of odors, pleasant-male fragrance, neutral-clean air, and unpleasant-rubber or body odor. 

Their results indicate that participants rated the attractiveness of a face significantly less when exposed to an unpleasant odor as opposed to a pleasant or neutral odor. Furthermore, no difference was found in the attractiveness rating when they were exposed to a neutral or pleasant scent. Neither did it matter if the odor was "body relevant", that is, rubber and body odor had the same effect.  

But wait... 

Isn't body odor a manifestation of pheromones which trigger sexual attraction? 

Well, that depends on whether or not we have a vomeronasal organ or VNO, which is responsible for the detection of pheromones.

Some say it's there but it's too small, others say it still works, and the rest say that there isn't one at all. From an evolutionary perspective, it has become obsolete for us humans, we lack the brain parts, and if a scientist happens to find a VNO region, it's simply a vestige. (Thank you, Mr. F. Bryant Furlow, for summing up a rather lengthy debate.)  

Hold that deodorant though!

In an article about body odor and attraction, Dr. Jessica Payne summarized a study conducted back in 2005 by Martins, Preti, Crabtree, Runyan, Vainius, and Wysocki. Their results indicate that body odors affect attraction and that there are different body odors for each gender. Participants were made to bathe with odorless products as well as abstain from strong smelling spices and keep cotton wedges between their arm puts for ...

NINE DAYS! 

They were then asked to rate the pleasantness of the odors captured in those cotton wedges. It turns out that  heterosexual men, heterosexual women, homosexual men, and homosexual women all had different emitted odors and odor preferences. 

So what happened to the study by Demattè, Österbauer, and Spence?

Why did body odor cause a lower rating of attractiveness?

It might be that the body odor they exposed their participants too was really too foul and unpleasant, or their participants weren't exposed to the right gender's body odor.

Too bad for Jean-Baptiste Grenouille though, he didn't smell like rubber or B.O. and one drop of his final perfume made him irresistible to all...

genders.