Augmenting aesthetic chills using a wearable prosthesis improves their downstream effects on reward and social cognition.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies on aesthetic chills (i.e., psychogenic shivers) demonstrate their positive effects on stress, pleasure, and social cognition. We tested whether we could artificially enhance this emotion and its downstream effects by intervening on its somatic markers using wearable technology. We built a device generating cold and vibrotactile sensations down the spine of subjects in temporal conjunction with a chill-eliciting audiovisual stimulus, enhancing the somatosensation of cold underlying aesthetic chills. Results suggest that participants wearing the device experienced significantly more chills, and chills of greater intensity. Further, these subjects reported sharing the feelings expressed in the stimulus to a greater degree, and felt more pleasure during the experience. These p

SUBMITTER: Haar AJH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7728802 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature