Portraits and emotions

[Ksenia]

I invite you to contribute to a new study about portraits and psychology by participating in a questionnaire where you look at some portraits and evaluate their emotions. It should take about 5-10 minutes. Your (anonymous) participation will create new knowledge and may change what we know about art and photography.

Goals and results of the study are planned to be published (also here) around the end of May 2017.


For randomization purpose, please choose ONLY ONE of the following three questionnaires according to the current time on your clock:

1. Your clock shows any hour and between 00-19 minutes (for example 12:05): Portrait Questionnaire

2. Your clock shows any hour and between 20-39 minutes (for example 12:30): Portrait Questionnaire

3. Your clock shows any hour and between 40-59 minutes (for example 12:51): Portrait Questionnaire


Best regards,
Ksenia Vorobieva
student
Department of Psychology
University of Gothenburg
gusvorks@student.gu.se

 

[Derrel]

I filled one out for you. Got it completed.

 

[Designer]

Did it. Did not die. Computer still works.

 

[The_Traveler]

Completed.
I did not die however my cat is feeling poorly.

 

[jcdeboever]

No thanks

Sent from my SM-T377V using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[KmH]

Ditto. Pass.

 

[Ksenia]

Finally, I found time to summarize the results of the study, described in my bachelor thesis.


If you have any questions or to read the complete thesis contact me: kseniavorobieva@yahoo.co.uk


- Now I can tell that the purpose of this study was to find out whether (and how) size of portrait's face in relation to the size of background effects on how we perceive emotions of person on portrait.

- The results indicate that a face depicted as big in relation to the size of background (the face takes up much of the space) appears to be expressing emotions stronger than the same face when it is smaller (small face on big background).

- So, since I found statistically significant correlations, this subject needs to be studied more. Also, similar studies of effects of image composition are recommended so that it will allow for designing an image that will convey the best possible message.


If you are interested, more details and background are below.

- In the first post I asked to participate in one of the three questionnaires. The participation consisted of viewing some portraits and estimating their emotions. Each questionnaire contained same set of portraits, but the size of face in relation to background differed depending on the questionnaire.


Since the subject of this study has not been considered before, it was unknown how to design it. It turned out that the portraits used in this study were not the most appropriate, since they contained details which influenced the judgment of emotions.


Portraits with only few details - 1st and 7th in this questionnaire - are perceived as expressing strongest emotion when the face is shown as big (there is statistical significance).


Additionally, a significant amount of participants rated the 7th portrait as expressing the emotion Contempt when the face was shown as big. This was not the case when the face was shown as small (different users chose different emotions).


The answers from online version of the questionnaire were not included in the main result of the study, though. Analysis indicated that the face to background size ratio could be strongly modified by a screen of an electronic device. However, this online version of questionnaire gave an interesting new insight - e.g. that images viewed on electronic devices may be perceived somewhat differently than, for example, a real painting.


Thank you for your interest and participation!