place science

Holt, Zapetis, Babadi, and Tootell chart how COVID has influenced the size of our preferred personal space zones.  They report that “during the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing recommendations led to deliberate expansions of personal space outside of intimate social circles. In the laboratory, personal space preferences are quite stable over repeated measurements. Here, we collected such measurements both before and during the pandemic in the same individuals, using both conventional and virtual reality-based techniques.

Chesterman, de Pattista, and Causse evaluated the during-lockdown experiences of people living in France.  They found that “Household affordances were found to be a positive factor of lockdown coping and resilience. . . . larger residences are positively related to resilience, and suggests that household affordances such as private areas, space to practice a physical activity, access to outdoors, adequate workspace, and proximity to healthcare services (…), are integral to coping with lockdown and building resilience. . . . .

How do names influence perceptions?  Zhang, Li, and Ng found that “Size cues are increasingly common in brand names (e.g., Xiaomi and Mini Cooper). . . . This research shows that a brand name size cue can evoke gender associations, which subsequently affect consumers’ perceived warmth and competence of the target brand. . . . brands with a size cue of smallness in the name are perceived to be warmer but less competent, while those with a size cue of  bigness are perceived to be less warm but more competent. . .

Recently completed research indicates that there may be good reasons we talk about colors in the ways we do.  Investigators lead by Twomey have learned that “cultures across the globe differ in their need to communicate about certain colors.   Linking almost all languages, however, is an emphasis on communicating about warm colors—reds and yellows—that are known to draw the human eye and that correspond with the colors of ripe fruits in primate diets. . . .

Spence, Carvalho, and Howes studied sensory experiences categorized as “metallic.” They report that “Many metallic visual stimuli, especially the so-called precious metals, have long had a rich symbolic meaning for humans. Intriguingly, however, while metallic is used to describe sensations associated with pretty much every sensory modality, the descriptor is normally positively valenced in the case of vision. . . .