[Protocol] Visual feedback of the individual's medical imaging results for changing health behaviours in clinical and non-clinical populations

Primary objective To assess the extent to which presentation to the individual of images of their own body created during medical imaging procedures increases or decreases health behaviours such as: 1. dietary fat intake; 2. physical activity levels; 3. smoking; 4. alcohol use; 5. damaging exposure to sunlight or other sources of ultraviolet radiation. This will be considered in comparison to the impact of communicating the same findings in a way which does not involve showing the person the source images derived from the imaging procedure (such as solely through oral feedback, or a written report). Secondary objective A secondary objective is to determine the impact of this feedback on consumers': 1. understanding of the relevant condition and of the risk information they have been given; 2. perceived severity and risk of disease; 3. perceived control over the disease risk; 4. perceived effectiveness of the risk-reducing behaviour; 5. emotional response, including general anxiety and condition-specific worry

The existence and importance of patients’ mental images of their head and neck cancer:A qualitative study

This study was supported by the Chief Scientist Office Scotland, grant number: CZS/1/48, URL http://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/.OBJECTIVES: To explore the existence and importance of mental images of cancer among people with head and neck cancers with a focus on the perceived origins and meaning of mental images, their development over time, and their relationship to illness beliefs. METHODS: A longitudinal qualitative study consisting of 44 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 consecutive, newly-diagnosed head and neck cancer patients. Participants were invited to draw their images during the interviews. Follow-up interviews occurred after treatment completion. Analysis drew upon the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). RESULTS: Many participants had mental images of their cancer which appeared to both embody and influence their beliefs about their illness, and affect their emotional response. For those who held them, mental images appeared to constitute an important part of their cognitive representation (understanding) of their illness. For some, their images also had a powerful emotional impact, being either reassuring or frightening. Images often appeared to originate from early clinical encounters, and remained fairly stable throughout treatment. Images could be conceptualised as 'concrete' (the perceived reality) and/or 'similic' (figurative). Patients' images reflected the perceived meaning, properties or 'intent' of the cancer-that is beliefs concerning the disease's identity, consequences and prognosis (likelihood of cure or control). CONCLUSIONS: People with head and neck cancer may develop a mental image of their disease, often generated early within clinical encounters, which can both reflect and influence their understanding of the cancer. Such images tend to be stable over time. We theorise that careful use of images in early consultations could avoid or minimise some distress, including fears of outcome or recurrence. Concrete or similic images and language could be employed later to change perceptions and reduce distress.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city

Purpose - This study examines the influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city. The study also compares the effects of perceived brand image of the city on the emotional attachment to the city across two groups: residents and visitors. Design/methodology - A total of 207 usable questionnaires were collected from 107 residents of the city of Bratislava, Slovakia, and 100 visitors to the city. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis. Findings - This study establishes that perceived city brand image significantly influences emotional attachment to the city. The study concludes that affective city image has greater impact on emotional attachment to the city among the residents than visitors. In contrast, the influence of cognitive city image on emotional attachment to the city does not vary across the two categories of residents and visitors to the city. Practical implications - City tourism marketers should focus on improving city brand images to enhance tourists’ emotional attachment to the city to promote repeat visits among visitors. Originality/value - This study contributes to improving understanding of the impact of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city across the two groups, residents and visitors, using social exchange theory. Furthermore, the findings come from a relatively under-researched Central and Eastern European (CEE) region

Meet OLAF, a Good Friend of the IAPS! The Open Library of Affective Foods: A Tool to Investigate the Emotional Impact of Food in Adolescents

Datos del estudio disponibles en: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10202In the last decades, food pictures have been repeatedly employed to investigate the emotional impact of food on healthy participants as well as individuals who suffer from eating disorders and obesity. However, despite their widespread use, food pictures are typically selected according to each researcher's personal criteria, which make it difficult to reliably select food images and to compare results across different studies and laboratories. Therefore, to study affective reactions to food, it becomes pivotal to identify the emotional impact of specific food images based on wider samples of individuals. In the present paper we introduce the Open Library of Affective Foods (OLAF), which is a set of original food pictures created to reliably select food pictures based on the emotions they prompt, as indicated by affective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance and by an additional food craving scale. OLAF images were designed to allow simultaneous use with affective images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), which is a well-known instrument to investigate emotional reactions in the laboratory. The ultimate goal of the OLAF is to contribute to understanding how food is emotionally processed in healthy individuals and in patients who suffer from eating and weight-related disorders. The present normative data, which was based on a large sample of an adolescent population, indicate that when viewing affective non-food IAPS images, valence, arousal, and dominance ratings were in line with expected patterns based on previous emotion research. Moreover, when viewing food pictures, affective and food craving ratings were consistent with research on food cue processing. As a whole, the data supported the methodological and theoretical reliability of the OLAF ratings, therefore providing researchers with a standardized tool to reliably investigate the emotional and motivational significance of food.This research was funded by a grant from Junta de Andalucía (Spain) to MCFS (grant code P12.SEJ.391). (http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicios​/ayudas/detalle/69962.html; Convocatoria 2012

Influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city

Purpose - This study examines the influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city. The study also compares the effects of perceived brand image of the city on the emotional attachment to the city across two groups: residents and visitors. Design/methodology - A total of 207 usable questionnaires were collected from 107 residents of the city of Bratislava, Slovakia, and 100 visitors to the city. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis. Findings - This study establishes that perceived city brand image significantly influences emotional attachment to the city. The study concludes that affective city image has greater impact on emotional attachment to the city among the residents than visitors. In contrast, the influence of cognitive city image on emotional attachment to the city does not vary across the two categories of residents and visitors to the city. Practical implications - City tourism marketers should focus on improving city brand images to enhance tourists’ emotional attachment to the city to promote repeat visits among visitors. Originality/value - This study contributes to improving understanding of the impact of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city across the two groups, residents and visitors, using social exchange theory. Furthermore, the findings come from a relatively under-researched Central and Eastern European (CEE) region

The role of animated images in the website evaluation and online purchase process

More companies, especially the electronic companies, have started to use animated images on their websites to strength the first impression of their products and services. The first objective of this study was to aim at understanding the following gap: understanding the relationship between the animated images and the purchase intention. This will be done considering two mediators: visceral emotion, website credibility. No research focuses on the impact of websites animated images considering serial mediators. The second objective was to investigate the moderating effect of the culture value on the impact of the animated images on Visceral emotion (Pleasure, arousal, dominance). The results indicate that animated images will elicit greater emotional pleasure (arousal) which will induce higher perceived website credibility, thus leading to higher purchase intention than static images on the electronic’s product pages. Emotional dominance does not seem to change when customers see animated images. In fact, people from different countries have similar emotional flow towards animated images on the electronic’s product pages and similar ones following perceived site credibility and purchase intention. The managerial implications of this study suggest builder could focus their effort on creating animated product images instead of making two versions of images to adjust the tastes of different cultures. In both cases, electronic companies and web builders should be careful in their ethical approach to ensure they do respect individuals' rights and maintain an ethical mindset in their whole vision of their marketing strategy and application

A Visual Representation and the Prediction of Emotion

Many scholars believe that news images affect public opinion about political and social issues. Previous research has shown that emotionally evocative visual news texts improve learning and memory for information as well as affect audience perspectives on relevant issues. However, the majority of these studies do not address in detail what combinations of characteristics create emotionally compelling images. Through content analysis of news photographs and both quantitative and qualitative measurement of viewer’s response to those images, this study begins to define what visual characteristics contribute significantly to emotional impact. The results of the content analysis also contribute to our understanding of what types of photographs appear most frequently in the news. The results show that features generally characterized by communication researchers as improving memory and learning: extreme negativity and deviation from normal visual experience were not well represented among the sample of 400 photographs from the Associated Press Photo Archive. Although the majority of photographs (65%) did have negative themes, only 5% of the images showed any kind of violence. Ten percent displayed the outcome of a non-violent disaster. The large majority of pictures were also photographed using vertical camera axes and straight angles. A sample of images from the iv content analysis was used as stimuli in the viewer-response portion of the study. Measures of the content served as independent variables in two regression analyses. The dependent variables were viewers’ level of either positive or negative affect. Significant predictors of negative affect included the presence of violence, the effects of violence, and the effects of disaster. Negative emotional displays by the subject(s) of the image, and unusual juxtapositions of people and/or objects also predicted negative affect. A separate regression analysis was conducted for positive affect. The presence of violence, unusual juxtapositions of objects, and negative emotional displays had significant, but negative, relationships with positive affect. Positive emotional displays and viewing the more central subjects in the image from the front significantly and directly predicted positive affect. Finally, the degree of closeness among subjects in the image also significantly predicted positive affect. Analysis of open-ended responses generally supports these results

How does it make you feel?

The rise of Social Network Sites (SNS) has had a huge impact on the field of public relations in that brands must now consider online branding as part of their strategy. This is a growing area of interest in both academia and practice as we strive to learn more about how to use the new platforms most effectively. In particular, SNS have encouraged the social role of brands and allow consumers engage directly with brands. This kind of engagement is a growing area of interest as brands interact with their customers directly and strive to stand out in the competitive online environment. In particular, the rise of image-sharing SNS mean that more brands are using visual content to convey their identity and engage consumers. It has been argued that the choice of such content is largely anecdotal and that brand managers tend to use their intuition when selecting material. This study aims to gain some theoretical understanding of how different types of content affect engagement and hence how brands can most effectively use visual content. The emotional aspect of engagement is of particular interest, therefore the study will examine whether the emotional content of images uploaded have an effect on engagement. The study will take a quantitative approach, using both content analysis and statistical analysis to determine the relationships between image content and engagement. The results of the research suggest that the content of images, including emotional content, have an impact on engagement, however do not fully explain engagement. The inclusion of brand name for images had a substantial effect on factors accounting for engagement, suggesting that the brand name is of more importance than the actual content when it comes to engagement –the importance of an image coming from a particular brand is higher than the actual content of the image itself consumers will like a certain brands’ posts regardless of the content. Overall, this research offers early insight into the factors affecting engagement in terms of the visual content that brands post on SNS