Self-Portraits: Smartphones Reveal a Side Bias in Non-Artists

PLoS ONE
February 2013 | Volume 8 | Issue 2 | e55141
Published: February 06, 2013
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055141

Nicola Bruno [1], Marco Bertamini [2]

1 Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy
2 Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Abstract

According to surveys of art books and exhibitions, artists prefer poses showing the left side of the face when composing a portrait and the right side when composing a self-portrait. However, it is presently not known whether similar biases can be observed in individuals that lack formal artistic training. We collected self-portraits by naïve photographers who used the iPhone front camera, and confirmed a right side bias in this non-artist sample and even when biomechanical constraints would have favored the opposite. This result undermines explanations based on posing conventions due to artistic training or biomechanical factors, and is consistent with the hypothesis that side biases in portraiture and self-portraiture are caused by biologically-determined asymmetries in facial expressiveness.

Introduction

When they compose a self-portrait, artists prefer poses showing the right side of their face. This right-side bias is well documented by surveys of art books and exhibitions but its origin has remained controversial. As an alternative to observational data from the history of art, we collected self-portraits by naïve photographers who used the iPhone™ front camera in controlled settings. The right side bias remained observable in this non-artist sample, and even when biomechanical constraints would have favored a left-side bias. These results argue against explanations based on posing constraints and support the hypothesis that side biases in portraiture and self-portraiture are caused by biologically determined asymmetries in facial expressiveness...

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0055141

Half Full or Empty: Cues That Lead Wine Drinkers to Unintentionally Overpour

Substance Use & Misuse
February 2014, Vol. 49, No. 3 , Pages 295-302
doi:10.3109/10826084.2013.832327

Doug Walker [1], Laura Smarandescu [1] and Brian Wansink [2]

1 Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
2 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

What might unknowingly bias the amount of wine a person serves themselves? Wine is often self-poured in various settings (e.g., at home, restaurants, receptions, parties). Building on research involving visual illusions and haptic cues, an exploratory field study finds that environmental factors (e.g., glass shape, pouring position, wine color) affect how much wine is poured in different scenarios. When individuals overpoured, they were generally accurate in post hoc perceptions of the relative extent to which the environmental cues affected their pouring. Increasing awareness of pouring biases is a step toward limiting alcohol intake for improved health outcomes and preventing alcohol-related problems.

Keywords
overpouring, overconsuming, environmental cues, wine

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10826084.2013.832327

The British Hitman: 1974–2013

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice
Early View (Online Version of Record published before inclusion in an issue)
DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12063

Donal MacIntyre, Visiting Professor
David Wilson, Professor of Criminology
Elizabeth Yardley, Director
Liam Brolan, Research Assistant

Centre for Applied Criminology, Birmingham City University

Abstract

This exploratory article presents a typology of British ‘hitmen’ as identified within newspaper reports about contract killing. Demographic and criminological data related to these hitmen and their victims are analysed and, on the basis of this analysis, a typology of British hitmen is developed. Our typology suggests that British hitmen are: ‘Novices’; ‘Dilettantes’; ‘Journeymen’; or ‘Masters’. It is hoped that this typology will be of use to law enforcement.

Conclusion

The dearth of academic research about hitmen is to be regretted, no matter the all-too-real difficulties of researching this particular form of violent crime. Even so, this exploratory article has only attempted to sketch in the broad contours of the phenomenon and in doing so we hope to prompt greater interest in this subject area, and its various cultures and subcultures. Further research is clearly needed and, if it were possible, these broad contours would benefit from the finer detail that might come through interviews with hitmen themselves. So, too, we hope that others will test our suggested typology and our broader conclusions that British hitmen do not exist solely or perhaps even primarily, within some secret, criminal underworld. Rather they are usually part of that community in which their hits takes place. Indeed, this simple reality is one of the major reasons why they are eventually apprehended.

Nor were all of the hits in our sample particularly professionally carried out. ‘Dilettante’ British hitmen, in particular, changed their minds; they got cold feet and could, in extreme circumstances, become the victims of their intended targets themselves. Even so, the ‘Journeyman’ hitman could be successful over a long period of time, although he was, thankfully, eventually caught – largely due to the intelligence that was built up about his activities and through developments in forensic science. Here, too, the importance of police informants cannot be underestimated.

Finally, the sites of British hits were not usually bars, clubs, or casinos but were far more likely to be the shopping centre, or the suburb in which the intended target lived. As a result, members of the public were all too often witnesses to a hit. Hits in this respect were not unusual and extraordinary, but rather commonplace and ordinary. So, too, the motives for a hit being contracted were mundane. Frankly, the motivations to pay a hitman the relatively small amount to carry out a murder were depressingly banal. Husbands and wives fell out with each other, or wanted to gain early access to life assurance policies; business partners decided to go, or wanted to go, their separate ways; business deals fell apart; and young gang members wanted to impress other, older, gang members with their bravado. All of this is far removed from the media portrayal of the fictional hitman who, on the evidence presented here, has little, or no connection, to his British reality.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/hojo.12063/

Perceived sexual receptivity and fashionableness: Separate paths linking red and black to perceived attractiveness

Color Research & Application
Volume 39, Issue 2, pages 208–212, April 2014
Issue published online: 7 JAN 2014

Adam D. Pazda [1], Andrew J. Elliot [1] and Tobias Greitemeyer [2]

1 Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2 Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Keywords:
psychology; red; black; color; receptivity; fashionableness; attractiveness

Abstract:
Previous research has documented that the colors red and black influence perceptions of attractiveness for men viewing women. Perceived sexual receptivity has been identified as a mediator for the red-attraction link, but there has been no research to date on the mechanism linking black to attractiveness. We conducted an experiment to test whether separate, unique mediators were responsible for color effects on attractiveness. We hypothesized that red would lead to attractiveness via perceived sexual receptivity, and that black would lead to attractiveness via perceived fashionableness. The data supported our central hypotheses, suggesting that color stimuli can lead to similar outcomes, but through different psychological processes.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/col.21804/abstract