Engineering affect: emotion regulation, the internet, and the techno-social niche

Philosophical work exploring the relation between cognition and the Internet is now an active area of research. Some adopt an externalist framework, arguing that the Internet should be seen as environmental scaffolding that drives and shapes cognition. However, despite growing interest in this topic, little attention has been paid to how the Internet influences our affective life — our moods, emotions, and our ability to regulate these and other feeling states. We argue that the Internet scaffolds not only cognition but also affect. Using various case studies, we consider some ways that we are increasingly dependent on our Internet-enabled “techno-social niches” to regulate the contours of our own affective life and participate in the affective lives of others. We argue further that, unlike many of the other environmental resources we use to regulate affect, the Internet has distinct properties that introduce new dimensions of complexity to these regulative processes. First, it is radically social in a way many of these other resources are not. Second, it is a radically distributed and decentralized resource; no one individual or agent is responsible for the Internet’s content or its affective impact on users. Accordingly, while the Internet can profoundly augment and enrich our affective life and deepen our connection with others, there is also a distinctive kind of affective precarity built into our online endeavors as well

Is Keeping It Real Enough? How Perceived Content Authenticity and Self-Esteem Influence Envy on Social Networking Sites

Social comparisons on traditional social networking sites (SNSs) such as Instagram can increase envy and reduce well-being. In this context, authenticity-driven SNSs such as BeReal intend to nudge their users towards sharing authentic and everyday content, thus reducing envy-inducing social comparisons occurring on traditional SNSs. However, it is unclear whether the content shared on authenticity-driven SNSs is indeed perceived as more authentic than on traditional SNSs, and how this affects SNS envy and well-being. Moreover, the relevance of perceived content authenticity next to self-esteem as an established envy antecedent remains unclear. Using two surveys, we found that BeReal content was perceived as more authentic than Instagram content. Furthermore, higher perceived content authenticity and self-esteem were associated with lower envy and increased affective well-being on both BeReal and Instagram, with self-esteem being a stronger predictor. This suggests that SNS design can reduce SNS envy, yet personal traits remain relevant predictors

Robot NAO used in therapy: Advanced design and evaluation

Treball de Final de Màster Universitari en Sistemes Intel·ligents. Codi: SIE043. Curs acadèmic 2013-2014Following with the previous work which we have done in the Final Research Project, we introduced a therapeutic application with social robotics to improve the positive mood in patients with fibromyalgia. Different works about therapeutic robotics, positive psychology, emotional intelligence, social learning and mood induction procedures (MIPs) are reviewed. Hardware and software requirements and system development are explained with detail. Conclusions about the clinical utility of these robots are disputed. Nowadays, experiments with real fibromyalgia patients are running, the methodology and procedures which take place in them are described in the future lines section of this work

Phenomenological study about enhancing university student's psychosocial wellbeing through YouTube videos: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) in Finland

The present qualitative study aimed to explore how the attitudes, experiences, and feelings of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) videos could be used to enhance psychosocial wellbeing similar to mindfulness-based treatment programs. ASMR is an atypical and multisensory phenomenon in which a tingling sensation is often elicited following specific audio-visual stimulations. Although ASMR experiences have been announced to enhance wellbeing and phenomenologically superimposed with mindfulness, there is a lack of research exploring how ASMR experiences relate to wellbeing. In this study, the theoretical underpinnings of the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (DSMM) by Patti M. Valkenburg and Jochen Peter (2013) are merged with Positive psychology's wellbeing theory (PERMA) by Seligman (2011) for the first time with the objective to explore and link the distinguishing characteristics of ASMR video with wellbeing outcomes. The study entailed two in-depth semi-structured interviews, which were conducted with three university students (one female and two males) in Finland. Interpretative phenomenological analysis with coding schemes was employed and guided by DSMM and Seligman's five domains of well-being. Three main themes and fourteen subthemes emerged from the analyses of the interview transcripts corresponding to the research question. The main themes include ASMR intentional use, ASMR media contents, and ASMR multisensory integration. The subthemes encompass prior ASMR-like experiences, social pressure from family members and curiosity, different types of sound, voices, and movement; nostalgic thoughts, pro-change bias, and positive responses. Exploration of interviewees' narratives further brought to light issues concerning ASMR's emotional effects on wellbeing. Analyses reveal different subthemes clustered into five main themes: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships (Connectedness), Meaning and Making a Connection, and Accomplishment. The findings showed how ASMR videos enhance wellbeing through mindfulness-like experiences. These research findings are significant due to the ASMR videos' potential to increase wellbeing and happiness. Furthermore, their influence can extend to elevating the ability to concentrate on tasks at hand, improving the quality of sleep by stopping rumination, increasing self-confidence, and motivating altruistic behavior. The beneficial potential of ASMR videos to promote psychosocial wellbeing is remarkable

Consumer Social Media Engagement with Video Ad in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The main objective of this article is to analyze the narrative of an advertising video in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic through a utilitarian (informativeness) and hedonic (playfulness) perspective and evaluate its consequences on brand engagement. In this article, we propose a quantitative approach based on structural equation models. The questionnaire was disseminated in April 2020, and 235 valid responses were obtained and analyzed using the software AMOS v26. The results confirmed the adjustment of the data to the conceptual model established and that empathy with the content in advertising videos has a mediating effect on playfulness and informativeness effects in brand engagement in social networks during COVID-19 pandemic. Our study analyses the narrative of an advertising video in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic through a utilitarian (informativeness) and hedonic (playfulness) perspective and evaluates its consequences on brand engagement. Despite the existence of several studies on advertising, its relationship with brand engagement is still poorly studied in the literature, especially in the pandemic period. This work demonstrates the importance of empathy with video as important factor in digital brand engagement, even in times of crisis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Positive Technology

Since the founding of positive psychology, the scientific study of well-being, in 1998 we have a much better understanding of how to define, measure, and cultivate well-being. For the first time, this means the field of technology can move forward with science on its side, designing and developing technology based on its actual impact on well-being. Through the lens of social relationships, this paper explores the current state of technology and well-being (part 1), ways in which we can improve existing technology (part 2), and how we can create new technology to systematically cultivate well-being (part 3). Recent research suggests that much of the fastest growing technology today has a negative effect on our social relationships and psychological well-being. To mitigate these negative outcomes, this paper calls for a foundational shift towards positive technology, defined as technology that uses principles from positive psychology to systematically cultivate well-being. To do this, positive psychology should dedicate more resources towards testing and validating well-being hypotheses as they relate to the latest technology applications. At the same time, technology companies should improve on their existing platforms by leveraging positive psychology research. Moreover, we should use the foundational principles of positive psychology to design new applications of technology that drive each of the core elements of well-being: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement (Seligman, 2011)

Sensing, Understanding, and Shaping Social Behavior

The ability to understand social systems through the aid of computational tools is central to the emerging field of computational social systems. Such understanding can answer epistemological questions on human behavior in a data-driven manner, and provide prescriptive guidelines for persuading humans to undertake certain actions in real-world social scenarios. The growing number of works in this subfield has the potential to impact multiple walks of human life including health, wellness, productivity, mobility, transportation, education, shopping, and sustenance. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we provide a functional survey of recent advances in sensing, understanding, and shaping human behavior, focusing on real-world behavior of users as measured using passive sensors. Second, we present a case study on how trust, which is an important building block of computational social systems, can be quantified, sensed, and applied to shape human behavior. Our findings suggest that:1) trust can be operationalized and predicted via computational methods (passive sensing and network analysis) and 2) trust has a significant impact on social persuasion; in fact, it was found to be significantly more effective than the closeness of ties in determining the amount of behavior change.U.S. Army Research Laboratory (Cooperative Agreement W911NF-09-2-0053