A comparative analysis of colour–emotion associations in 16–88‐year‐old adults from 31 countries

As people age, they tend to spend more time indoors, and the colours in their surroundings may significantly impact their mood and overall well-being. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to provide informed guidance on colour choices, irrespective of age group. To work towards informed choices, we investigated whether the associations between colours and emotions observed in younger individuals also apply to older adults. We recruited 7,393 participants, aged between 16 and 88 years and coming from 31 countries. Each participant associated 12 colour terms with 20 emotion concepts and rated the intensity of each associated emotion. Different age groups exhibited highly similar patterns of colour-emotion associations (average similarity coefficient of 0.97), with subtle yet meaningful age-related differences. Adolescents associated the greatest number but the least positively biased emotions with colours. Older participants associated a smaller number but more intense and more positive emotions with all colour terms, displaying a positivity effect. Age also predicted arousal and power biases, varying by colour. Findings suggest parallels in colour-emotion associations between younger and older adults, with subtle but significant age-related variations. Future studies should next assess whether colour-emotion associations reflect what people actually feel when exposed to colour

Criminal Genius or Everyday Villain? A Comparison of Malevolent Creativity Among Prison Inmates, Police Officers, and the General Population

A large scale comparison of different aspects of malevolent creativity among maximum-security prisoners, police officers, and the general population. Data was collected from a Romanian population from 2022 to 2024. Malevolent creativity is assessed with the Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale (MCBS; Hao et al., 2016) and the Malevolent Creativity Test (MCT; Perchtold-Stefan et al., 2021). Additionally, group differences in personality traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, impulsiveness) are considered

MRI resting-state signature of the propensity to experience meaningful coincidences

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Resting Brain and Individual Differences

This larger research project investigates the neuroscience of some of people's "stranger" individual differences in morbid curiosity (curiosity for negative things like watching videos of traffic accidents, medical operations or documentaries on serial killers), true crime consumption (people's interest in narrations of real-life criminal cases), perception of meaningful coincidences, creativity, and emotion regulation via the capacity for cognitive reappraisal. It's main purpose is to trace individual differences from a neuroscientific perspective by utilizing resting-state scans from adult participants. fMRI resting-state scans indicating functional connectivity (rs-fc) of brain regions at rest were conducted in a sample of n = 133 participants in total. Additionally, various questionnaires and test were administered (all in German). MRI analyses were performed with the CONN toolbox. https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds004965/versions/1.0.1 a) Demographic data (gender, age, education, income, relationship status, living area, psychiatric/neurological diagnosis) b) true crime consumption and motivations (McDonald et al., 2021) c) Morbid curiosity (Scrivner, 2021) d) Big-5 personality (Rammstedt et al., 2013) e) Dark triad (Malesza et al., 2019) f) Depressive symptoms (Hautzinger & Bailer, 1993) g) Trait anxiety (Spielberger, 2001) h) Perceived stress (Klein et al., 2016) i) Resilience (Chmitorz et al., 2018) j) Aggression (Bryant & Smith, 2001) k) Meaningful coincidences (Bressan, 2002) l) Likelihood of victimization (Kerestly, 2021) m) Media preferences (Scrivner, 2021) n) Cognitive emotion regulation (Loch et al., 2011) o) Cognitive reappraisal capacity (Weber et al., 2014) p) Malevolent creativity (Perchtold-Stefan et al., 2021

Psychological Perspectives on True Crime Consumption

Project name: Horror as creative emotion regulation – Can true crime consumption help boost adaptive coping with fear and stress? Years: 01.01.2023 to 31.05.2024 This research project investigates the psychology of interest in true crime – the narration of real-life crime stories in various media (books, podcasts, movies, TV, news). The main goal of the project is to provide a first, in-depth investigations of cognitive, affective, and social correlates of true crime consumption with a particular focus on motives, traits, and perceptions of true crime consumers as well as potential consequences of true crime consumption with regard to well-being and mental health. Additionally, this study is used as an overarching investigations of aspects influencing behavior and well-being in daily life, including measures of creativity, emotion regulation, the experience of meaningful coincidences, curiosity, also with regard to potential interindividual differences regarding gender, age, or socioeconomic background. a) Demographic data (gender, age, education, income, relationship status, living area, psychiatric/neurological diagnosis) b) true crime consumption and motivations (McDonald et al., 2021) c) Morbid curiosity (Scrivner, 2021) d) Big-5 personality (Rammstedt et al., 2013) e) Dark triad (Malesza et al., 2019) f) Depressive symptoms (Hautzinger & Bailer, 1993) g) Trait anxiety (Spielberger, 2001) h) Perceived stress (Klein et al., 2016) i) Resilience (Chmitorz et al., 2018) j) Aggression (Bryant & Smith, 2001) k) Meaningful coincidences (Bressan, 2002) l) Likelihood of victimization (Kerestly, 2021) m) Media preferences (Scrivner, 2021) n) Cognitive emotion regulation (Loch et al., 2011) o) Cognitive reappraisal capacity (Weber et al., 2014) p) Malevolent creativity (Perchtold-Stefan et al., 2021

The use of coping strategies "shift-persist" mediates associations between physical activity and mental health problems in adolescents : a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Self-perceived mental health problems among adolescents has had an upward trend. Concurrently, adolescents' physical activity (PA) has been falling whilst sedentary time (SED) has increased. There is a lack of research using accelerometer measured PA and SED to study their relationships to perceived stress and psychosomatic symptoms, both frequently observed mental health problems among adolescents. Whether coping strategies is one of the mechanisms underlying such relationship is less clear. METHODS: A total of 2283 13-year olds were enrolled in the baseline examination of the STARS (STudy of Adolescence Resilience and Stress) study in Western Sweden. Light-, moderate-, vigorous-intensity PA (LPA, MPA and VPA) and SED were measured using hip-worn ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer. A total of 1284 adolescents provided valid accelerometer data (at least 4 days with ≥10 h per day). PA and SED during school-time and leisure-time were analysed separately. Surveys were utilized to monitor perceived stress, psychosomatic symptoms and the use of coping strategies "shift-persist". Logistic regression and mediation analyses were performed adjusting for gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and puberty development. RESULTS: We observed that more time spent in PA was associated with less stress in adolescents. The associations were observed for LPA (Odds ratio for LPA per 60 min: 0.557 (95% CI 0.399-0.776), VPA (Odds ratio for VPA per 15 min: 0.688 (95% CI 0.588-0.806) and MVPA (Odds ratio for MVPA per 15 min: 0.795 (95%CI 0.718-0.879) during leisure time, but not during school time. Similar associations were observed between leisure time PA and psychosomatic symptoms. The associations remained statistically significant even after adjusting for the confounders. Further, our data showed that adolescents who engaged more time in PA during leisure time were more likely to adopt the coping strategies of "shift-persist". Mediation analysis showed that the use of "shift-persist" mediated the associations between leisure time PA and stress/psychosomatic symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Leisure time physical activity, irrespective of intensity, may facilitate successful coping with stress and stress-related mental health problems in adolescents