Shared liking and association valence for representational art but not abstract art

This is the authors' accepted version of an article published in Journal of Vision, 2015. The article, together with supplementary information, is available at http://jov.arvojournals.org/Article.aspx?articleid=2278788We examined the finding that aesthetic evaluations are more similar across observers for representational images than for abstract images. It has been proposed that a difference in convergence of observers' tastes is due to differing levels of shared semantic associations (Vessel & Rubin, 2010). In Experiment 1, student participants rated 20 representational and 20 abstract artworks. We found that their judgments were more similar for representational than abstract artworks. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding, and also found that valence ratings given to associations and meanings provided in response to the artworks converged more across observers for representational than for abstract art. Our empirical work provides insight into processes that may underlie the observation that taste for representational art is shared across individual observers, while taste for abstract art is more idiosyncratic

The General Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS): Confirmatory Validation and Associations with Personality, Corporate Distrust, and General Trust

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction on 14/06/2022, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2085400Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence may be predicted by individual psychological correlates, examined here. Study 1 reports confirmatory validation of the General Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS) following initial validation elsewhere. Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the two-factor structure (Positive, Negative) and showed good convergent and divergent validity with a related scale. Study 2 tested whether psychological factors (Big Five personality traits, corporate distrust, and general trust) predicted attitudes towards AI. Introverts had more positive attitudes towards AI overall, likely because of algorithm appreciation. Conscientiousness and agreeableness were associated with forgiving attitudes towards negative aspects of AI. Higher corporate distrust led to negative attitudes towards AI overall, while higher general trust led to positive views of the benefits of AI. The dissociation between general trust and corporate distrust may reflect the public’s attributions of the benefits and drawbacks of AI. Results are discussed in relation to theory and prior findings

Concreteness of semantic interpretations of abstract and representational artworks

The authors tested two contrasting theoretical predictions to establish whether semantic interpretations of abstract artworks had different lexical concreteness from those of representational artworks. In Experiment 1, 49 non-expert participants provided brief verbal interpretations of 20 abstract and 20 representational artworks. Frequentist and Bayesian Linear Mixed Models showed that the words’ concreteness levels were robustly higher for interpretations of abstract artworks than representational artworks. This difference was present regardless of the inclusion or exclusion of function words. Potential diluting or inflating impacts on the effect due to the multi-word responses were examined in Experiment 2, in which 72 new participants provided single-word interpretations for the same artworks. The effect replicated with a larger effect size. The findings suggest that non-expert viewers prioritise establishing what is depicted over seeking deeper meanings if the depicted is not readily established perceptually. The findings are incompatible with the theoretical stance that abstract art has abstract meaning. Instead, the findings are consistent with complex models of aesthetic processing in which meaning may emerge in stages. The effect of art type on the concreteness of meaning is an important, hitherto undiscovered basic finding in empirical aesthetics. Our novel methods enable further research in this field

Exploring Footedness, Throwing Arm, and Handedness as Predictors of Eyedness Using Cluster Analysis and Machine Learning: Implications for the Origins of Behavioural Asymmetries

Behavioural asymmetries displayed by individuals, such as hand preference and foot preference, tend to be lateralized in the same direction (left or right). This may be because their co-ordination conveys functional benefits for a variety of motor behaviours. To explore the potential functional relationship between key motor asymmetries, we examined whether footedness, handedness, or throwing arm was the strongest predictor of eyedness. Behavioural asymmetries were measured by self-report in 578 left-handed and 612 right-handed individuals. Cluster analysis of the asymmetries revealed four handedness groups: consistent right-handers, left-eyed right-handers, consistent left-handers, and inconsistent left-handers (who were left-handed but right-lateralized for footedness, throwing and eyedness). Supervised machine learning models showed the importance of footedness, in addition to handedness, in determining eyedness. In right-handers, handedness was the best predictor of eyedness, followed closely by footedness, and for left-handers it was footedness. Overall, predictors were more informative in predicting eyedness for individuals with consistent lateral preferences. Implications of the findings in relation to the origins and genetics of handedness and sports training are discussed. Findings are related to fighting theories of handedness and to bipedalism, which evolved after manual dexterity, and which may have led to some humans being right-lateralized for ballistic movements and left-lateralized for hand dexterity

Why Are Most Humans Right-Handed? The Modified Fighting Hypothesis

Humans show a population-level preference for using the right hand. The fighting hypothesis is an influential theory that suggests that left-handedness persists because its rarity provides a surprise advantage in fighting interactions, and that left-handedness is less frequent because it has a health cost. However, evidence for the health cost of left-handedness is unsubstantiated, leaving the greater frequency of right-handers unexplained. Research indicates that homicide may have been common in early hominins. We propose that the hand used to hold a weapon by early hominins could have influenced the outcome of a fight, due to the location of the heart and aorta. A left-handed unilateral grip exposes the more vulnerable left hemithorax towards an opponent, whereas a right-hand unilateral grip exposes the less vulnerable right hemithorax. Consequently, right-handed early ancestors, with a preference for using the right forelimb in combat, may have had a lower risk of a mortal wound, and a fighting advantage. This would explain their greater frequency. In accordance with the original fighting hypothesis, we also suggest that left-handed fighters have a surprise advantage when they are rare, explaining their persistence. We discuss evidence for the modified fighting hypothesis, its predictions, and ways to test the theory

The effects of sex and handedness on masturbation laterality and other lateralised motor behaviours

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Laterality on 26/11/2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2021.2006211Masturbation is a common human behaviour. Compared to other unimanual behaviours it has unique properties, including increased sexual and emotional arousal, and privacy. Self-reported hand preference for masturbation was examined in 104 left-handed and 103 right-handed women, and 100 left-handed and 99 right-handed men. Handedness (modified Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, EHI), footedness, eyedness, and cheek kissing preferences were also measured. Seventy nine percent used their dominant hand (always/usually) for masturbation, but left-handers (71.5%) were less consistently lateralised to use their dominant hand than right-handers (86.5%). Hand preference for masturbation correlated more strongly with handedness (EHI), than with footedness, eyedness, or cheek preference. There was no difference in masturbation frequency between left and right-handers, but men masturbated more frequently than women, and more women (75%) than men (33%) masturbated with sex aids. For kissing the preferred cheek of an emotionally close person from the viewer’s perspective, left-handers showed a left-cheek preference, and right-handers a weaker right-cheek preference. The results suggest that hemispheric asymmetries in emotion do not influence hand preference for masturbation but may promote a leftward shift in cheek kissing. In all, masturbation is lateralised in a similar way to other manual motor behaviours in left-handed and right-handed men and women

Shared meaning in representational and abstract visual art: an empirical study

This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.A longstanding and important question is how meaning is generated by visual art. One view is that abstract art uses a universal language whereas representational art is tied to specific knowledge. This view predicts that meaning for abstract is shared across viewers to a greater extent than for representational art. This contrasts with a view of greater shared meaning for representational than abstract art, because of shared associations for the entities depicted in representational art, as supported by recent empirical findings. This study examined the contrasting predictions derived from these two views. 49 nonexpert adult participants wrote brief descriptions of meanings that they attributed to 20 abstract and 20 representational artworks, generating a corpus of 1918 texts. Computational analyses (semantic textual similarity, latent semantic analysis) and linguistic analysis (type-token ratio) provided triangulated quantitative data. Frequentist and Bayesian statistical analyses showed that meanings were shared to a somewhat greater extent for representational art, but that meanings for abstract artworks were also shared above baseline. Triangulated human and machine analyses of the texts showed core shared meanings for both art types, derived from literal and metaphoric interpretations of visual elements. The findings support the view that representational art elicits higher levels of shared meaning than abstract art. The empirical findings can be used to enhance theoretical and computational models of aesthetic evaluation, and the rigorous new methodologies developed can be deployed in many other contexts

Resilience and mental toughness as predictors of anxiety, depression, and mental well-being

To examine how strongly the attributes of resilience and mental toughness predicted levels of anxiety, depression, and mental well-being, a quantitative online survey of 281 adults was employed. The survey was conducted in the United Kingdom (April to June 2021) using opportunity sampling. Resilience, mental toughness, and mental well-being were measured by the 10-item Connor-Davidson resilience scale, the 10-item mental toughness questionnaire, and the 14-item Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale, respectively. In addition, the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) measured anxiety and depression, and the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to measure depression. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze which attribute was the strongest predictor of mental health. Mental toughness was found to be a significantly stronger predictor of well-being (β=0.54) than resilience (β=0.21), of anxiety (β=-0.70 versus 0.02, respectively), of HADS depression (β=-0.52 versus -0.15), and of PHQ-9 depression (β=-0.62 versus -0.09). We propose that mental toughness may predict well-being more strongly than resilience because it is a broader construct, incorporating proactive traits that enhance well-being. The findings suggest that training and interventions that enhance mental toughness in non-clinical populations may be more effective at promoting mental well-being and reducing anxiety and depression than those that enhance resilience. Further research is required to test these practical implications and to clarify why mental toughness is a stronger predictor than resilience for positive mental health

Appraisal Self-respect: Scale Validation and Construct Implications

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI]Despite the widely accepted recognition of the notion of self-respect and its importance for emotional well-being, it has received scant attention in the psychological literature. We report on the development and validation of a scale to measure trait (character-based) appraisal self-respect (ASR), conceptualised as a disposition to perceive or appraise oneself as being a respectworthy honourable person. We tested the factor structure, reliability, convergent, discriminant and criterion validity of the ASR scale in samples of adult individuals (combined N = 1910 across samples). The resulting ASR scale was found to be essentially unidimensional and showed good internal and acceptable test-retest reliability. Trait ASR was correlated with (yet distinct from) theoretically related measures of global self-esteem, moral self and principledness, and was distinct from other self-esteem facets not based on honourable character traits. Importantly, it related to well-being and prosocial behaviour over-and-above self-esteem. The validation work served to consolidate the theoretical boundaries and utility of this important concept

Side preferences in human dyads when walking: the influence of country, threat, handedness, and sex

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.In several species, lateral position preferences have been observed in pair mates, mother–infant dyads, and during agonistic interactions. This research examined side preferences in human dyads in an observational study and survey. We observed 1236 male–female pairs walking in the UK and found a bias for males to walk on the right side of the pair, which did not depend on hand-holding, or walking during daylight or darkness. The survey measured side preferences in 798 participants (398 left-handed, 411 right-handed), from the UK (402) and USA (396). Participants chose a side to walk when walking with their partner, or alone, in various threatening/non-threatening scenes. Threat did not influence preference in walking couples, but males, when passing a threatening stranger, preferred the best combat side for their handedness. Country and handedness also influenced preferences. Left-handers preferred the left side and right-handers preferred the right side, and USA participants exhibited a more rightward preference than UK participants. The pattern of preference for each country was equivalent, showing independent influences of handedness and cultural learning. Overall, the results suggest that males and females prefer the side that allows their dominant hand to be on the outside of the dyad.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding for Study 2, which was provided by an internal University of Chester grant with the grant code QR737