Affective responses to body stimuli: comparing male and female bodies with cropped heads and masked faces. Issue 7 (3rd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Groves, Katie; Kennett, Steffan; Gillmeister, Helge
• Is Part Of: Journal of cognitive psychology. Volume 30:Issue 7(2018)
• Page Start: 754
• Page End: 770
• Publication Date: 2018-10-03
• Subjects: Body perception -- body representation -- headless bodies -- masked faces -- affective responses; Cognitive psychology -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2018.1518962
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2044-5911

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Three studies were conducted to determine whether headless bodies evoke affective responses that might confound neuroimaging and electrophysiological findings. In Experiment 1, 224 participants rated pictures, including bodies with cropped heads and masked faces, for disgust, fear, naturalness, valence and arousal. In Experiment 2, 38 participants viewed the same images during a free word association task, whilst in Experiment 3 galvanic skin responses were measured as 57 participants completed a similar rating task to that in Experiment 1. No differences were found between responses elicited by bodies without heads versus bodies with masked faces, although female bodies were thought of more positively than male bodies. This suggests that headless bodies are not abhorrent and are appropriate stimuli for investigating body-selective perceptual processes as they do not evoke face-processing mechanisms. Our findings also suggest that differences between male and female body viewing should be considered when investigating visual body perception.