Kate McCulloch
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kmccul.bsky.social
Kate McCulloch
@kmccul.bsky.social
25 followers 42 following 0 posts
Social evolutionary psychologist @ University of Suffolk and Branch Secretary @UCU Suffolk
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Reposted by Kate McCulloch
dalmaijer.bsky.social
NEW! Using #pupillometry during emotional stimuli, we found if/when individual stimulus ratings are associated with pupil size. In short, disgust was the strongest pupil dilator, whereas anger constricts it (a bit).

Paper by fantastic first-author @kmccul.bsky.social et al.: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...
The image is a graph that shows five lines (one for each emotion), punctuated with small dots for uncorrected statistical significance and bigger dots for statistical significance after multiple-comparisons correction. The x-axis is labelled "Time (seconds)" and runs from just before 0 to 30 seconds. The y-axis reads "Standardised beta coefficient" and runs from just under -0.15 to 0.3. A dotted line spans across y=0, and labels indicate that positive values mean that "Emotion predicts larger pupil" and negative values that "Emotion predicts smaller pupil". Anger (in red) shows a negative trajectory from ~5 seconds after stimulus onset, with some bits statistically different from 0. Fear (purple) is indistinguishable from 0, until it is associated with larger pupils in the last 2-3 seconds. Sadness is somewhat positively associated with pupil size, but not after multiple-comparisons correction. Happiness is associated with relative pupil dilation from ~3 seconds until the end of the stimulus. Disgust is by far the most prominent predictor of larger pupil size, with standardised coefficients about twice as high as for happiness.
May 6, 2025 at 11:03 AM