Miller and colleagues reviewed the findings of published qualitative studies related to the design of palliative healthcare spaces. They report that “People with a life-limiting illness may receive palliative care to improve their quality of life in hospital. . . .
Lin investigated how illustrations are evaluated. Findings from the completed study include: “Although the aesthetic experience of popular illustrations is frequent in modern life, no scientific research can fully explain its psychological structure so far. This study aims to develop an aesthetic model of perception, affection, and cognition, presenting an aesthetic psychological framework for contemporary popular illustration. Thirty representative illustrations were selected as experimental stimuli from design media. . . .
Reyt and colleagues studied influences on how crowded people in waiting rooms feel. They report that “Crowded waiting areas are volatile environments, where seemingly ordinary people often get frustrated and mistreat frontline staff. . . . we suggest an intervention that can ‘massage’ outsiders’ perceptions of crowding and reduce the mistreatment of frontline staff.
Beverly and colleagues probed the sorts of experiences that can reduce stress in frontline healthcare workers. They report that they “piloted a three-minute Tranquil Cinematic-VR simulation of a nature scene to lower subjective stress among frontline healthcare workers in COVID-19 treatment units. . . . A convenience sample of frontline healthcare workers, including direct care providers, indirect care providers, and support or administrative services, were recruited from three COVID-19 units located in the United States. . . .
Greenberg and colleagues probed links between personality and preferred music styles and it seems likely that their findings can be applied more generally. The team report that they “built on theory and research in personality, cultural, and music psychology to map the terrain of preferences for Western music using data from 356,649 people across six continents. . . . the patterns of correlations between personality traits and musical preferences were largely consistent across countries and assessment methods.
Researchers have evaluated what people from different cultures categorize as creative. Data were gathered from people from Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Kharkhurin and colleagues found that “The concept of creativity varies by culture. . . . Creative daring . . . appears to be a key feature of creativity in the Western, but not in the Eastern tradition. . . .
Researchers have learned that too much similarity among survey questions can lead to the collection of lower quality data. A Li-lead team found that “Surveys that ask too many of the same type of question tire respondents and return unreliable data. . . . people tire from questions that vary only slightly and tend to give similar answers to all questions as the survey progresses. . .
McDonald, Bockler, and Kanske studied how hearing different sorts of music influences our thinking about other people. They determined that “Music is a human universal and has the ability to evoke powerful, genuine emotions. But does music influence our capacity to understand and feel with others?
Chang and colleagues investigated factors that contribute to spending time in nature. They found that there are genetic influences on the amount of time people are likely to spend in natural spaces and also on human desire to be in nature.
Seo evaluated responses to service robots in hotels. They determined that “female service robots generated more pleasure and higher satisfaction compared to that of male service robots, and its influence is amplified when the level of anthropomorphism is high [the robots are more human-like] rather than low. Findings highlight the benefit of female service robots in a hotel setting which is only effective when the service robot is humanized, which provides useful guidelines for hoteliers when applying service robots in their service settings.”
