scholarly journals Can Urban Forest Settings Evoke Positive Emotion? Evidence on Facial Expressions and Detection of Driving Factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8687
Author(s):  
Ping Liu ◽  
Mengnan Liu ◽  
Tingting Xia ◽  
Yutao Wang ◽  
Hongxu Wei
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Senior Citizen ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Daily Minimum Temperature ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Mental Well Being

There is increasing interest in experiences of urban forests because relevant studies have revealed that forest settings can promote mental well-being. The mental response to a forest experience can be evaluated by facial expressions, but relevant knowledge is limited at large geographical scales. In this study, a dataset of 2824 photos, detailing the evaluated age (toddler, youth, middle-age, and senior citizen) and gender of urban forest visitors, was collected from Sina Weibo (a social media application similar to Twitter in China) between 1–7 October 2018, in 12 randomly chosen cities in China. Happy and sad expressions were rated as scores by FireFACE software V1.0, and the positive response index (PRI) was calculated by subtracting sad scores from happy scores. Regional environmental factors were collected to detect driving forces using regression analyses. Happy scores were higher in forests than in urban settings, while sad scores for toddlers were lower in forests than in promenades and squares. Females showed more positive emotional expressions than males. Increases in happy scores were driven by the increase of daily minimum temperature; while PRI declined with increases in latitude. Overall, an urban forest experience can evoke positive emotions, which is likely due to comfortable feelings in warm temperatures.

scholarly journals Optimizing Urban Forest Landscape for Better Perceptions of Positive Emotions

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1691
Author(s):  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Zhi Yang ◽  
Zhuo Chen ◽  
Mengyuan Guo ◽  
Peng Guo
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Negative Contribution ◽  
Male Adolescents ◽  
Mental Well Being

Interacting with urban spaces that are green and blue is believed to promote mental well-being and positive emotions. Therefore, there is an incentive to strategically design urban forest landscapes in a given space to evoke more positive emotion. In this study, we conducted a pilot study in Northeast China with 24 parks from 11 cities across 3 provinces. The subjects of the study are the visitors and a total of 1145 photos and selfies were collected from open micro-twitters in Sino Weibo (~50 individuals per park). Facial expressions of happy and sad emotions were recognized and rated as percent scores by FireFACE v1.0. Demographically, male adolescents smiled more than male visitors in other age groups and female teens. Females expressed more positive emotions than males according to their positive response index (PRI; happy-sad). Multivariate linear regression indicated positive contribution of green space to happy scores (estimate of 0.0040) and a stronger negative contribution of blue area to sad scores (estimate of −0.1392). Therefore, an urban forest landscape can be optimized by mapping green- and blue-spaces to predict spatial distributions of positive emotions. Male teens are recommended more as frequent visitors than people in other age ranges.

scholarly journals Facial expressions of Asian people exposed to constructed urban forests: Accuracy validation and variation assessment

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253141
Author(s):  
Haoming Guan ◽  
Hongxu Wei ◽  
Richard J. Hauer ◽  
Ping Liu
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Accuracy Measurement ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Variation Assessment ◽  
Asian People

An outcome of building sustainable urban forests is that people’s well-being is improved when they are exposed to trees. Facial expressions directly represents one’s inner emotions, and can be used to assess real-time perception. The emergence and change in the facial expressions of forest visitors are an implicit process. As such, the reserved character of Asians requires an instrument rating to accurately recognize expressions. In this study, a dataset was established with 2,886 randomly photographed faces from visitors at a constructed urban forest park and at a promenade during summertime in Shenyang City, Northeast China. Six experts were invited to choose 160 photos in total with 20 images representing one of eight typical expressions: angry, contempt, disgusted, happy, neutral, sad, scared, and surprised. The FireFACE ver. 3.0 software was used to test hit-ratio validation as an accuracy measurement (ac.) to match machine-recognized photos with those identified by experts. According to the Kruskal-Wallis test on the difference from averaged scores in 20 recently published papers, contempt (ac. = 0.40%, P = 0.0038) and scared (ac. = 25.23%, P = 0.0018) expressions do not pass the validation test. Both happy and sad expression scores were higher in forests than in promenades, but there were no difference in net positive response (happy minus sad) between locations. Men had a higher happy score but lower disgusted score in forests than in promenades. Men also had a higher angry score in forests. We conclude that FireFACE can be used for analyzing facial expressions in Asian people within urban forests. Women are encouraged to visit urban forests rather than promenades to elicit more positive emotions.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Landscape Metrics and Facial Expressions in 18 Urban Forest Parks of Northern China

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1619
Author(s):  
Ping Liu ◽  
Mengnan Liu ◽  
Tingting Xia ◽  
Yutao Wang ◽  
Peng Guo
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Landscape Metrics ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Green Spaces ◽  
Forest Parks

Urban forests are an important green infrastructure that positively impacts human well-being by improving emotions and reducing psychological stress. Questionnaires have been used frequently to study the influence of forest experiences on mental health; however, they have poor controllability and low accuracy for detecting immediate emotions. This study used the alternative approach of facial reading, detecting the facial expressions of urban forest visitors and their relationships with the landscape metrics. Using the microblogging site, Sina Weibo, we collected facial photos of 2031 people visiting 18 different forest parks across Northern China in 2020. We used satellite imagery analysis to assess the elevation and pattern sizes of green space and blue space areas. Age and location were taken as independent variables affecting facial expressions, which were categorized as happy or sad. With increases in green space and intact park areas, people showed a higher frequency of expressing happy scores. The results showed that the forest experience frequently elicited positive emotions, suggesting that creating and maintaining urban green spaces enhance people’s quality of life.

scholarly journals Emotional experience in individual and cooperative traditional games. A gender perspective.

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pere Lavega ◽  
Unai Sáez-de-Ocáriz ◽  
Francisco Lagardera ◽  
Jaume March-Llanes ◽  
Nuria Puig
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Physical Education Teachers ◽  
Motor Action ◽  
Sex Role Stereotypes ◽  
And Gender

<p>This study explored the effect of gender (GE) and group gender composition (GGEC) on men’s and women’s experiences of emotions when taking part in different games. To formulate our hypotheses we used a theoretical framework formed by the theories of Lazarus and Bisquerra on the construct of emotional competence and well-being and their relationship with gender stereotypes, Parlebas’s motor action theory and previous results of empirical research related to games, emotions and gender relations. The participants (218 university students, <em>M<sub>age</sub></em> = 20.3, <em>sd</em> = <em>2.73</em>) completed twelve sessions of individual games (IG) and cooperative games (CG). The results showed that GE and GGEC were predictors of the experience of positive emotions and that males were more likely to experience negative emotions in both games. The findings highlight gender differences and could help physical education teachers to avoid activities that reinforce the hierarchies and inequalities associated with gender and sex role stereotypes.</p>

scholarly journals Parental Educational Attainment and Mental Well-Being of College Students: Diminished Returns of Blacks

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Black College ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Black College Students ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Mental Well Being

Background. According to the Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDR) theory, the health returns of socioeconomic status (SES) are systemically smaller for Blacks compared to Whites. Less is known, however, about trans-generational aspects of such diminished gains. For example, the differential impact of parental educational attainment on differences in mental well-being between White versus Black college students remains unknown. Aims. With a national scope, this study explored racial differences in the effect of parental educational attainment on the mental well-being of college students in the United States. Methods. The Healthy Mind Study (HMS), 2016–2017, is a national telephone survey that included 41,898 college students. The sample was composed of Whites (n = 38,544; 92.0%) and Blacks (n = 3354; 8.0%). The independent variable was highest parental educational attainment. The dependent variable was mental well-being (mentally healthy days in the past month) which was measured using a single item. Age and gender were covariates. Race was the moderator. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. Results. In the pooled sample, high parental educational attainment was associated with better mental wellbeing, independent of race, age, and gender. Race, however, showed a significant interaction with parental educational attainment on students’ mental wellbeing, indicating a smaller effect of parent education on the mental wellbeing of Black compared to White college students. Conclusions. The returns of parental educational attainment in terms of mental well-being is smaller for Black college students compared to their White counterparts. To minimize the diminished returns of parental education in Black families, policies should go beyond equalizing SES and reduce the structural barriers that are common in the lives of Black families. Policies should also aim to reduce extra costs of upward social mobility, prevent discrimination, and enhance the quality of education for Blacks. As the mechanisms that are involved in MDR are multi-level, multi-level solutions are needed to minimize the racial gaps in gaining mental health benefits from higher socioeconomic levels.

scholarly journals Visitors’ emotional expression in urban forest parks: What can we know about on-line facial images from the Social Networking Services?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoming Guan ◽  
Honxu Wei ◽  
Xingyuan He ◽  
Zhibin Ren ◽  
Xin Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Networking Services ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forest Parks ◽  
Facial Images

Urban forests can attract visitors by the function of well-being improvement, which can be evaluated by analyzing the big-data from the social networking services (SNS). In this study, 935 facial images of visitors to nine urban forest parks were screened and downloaded from check-in records in the SNS platform of Sina Micro-Blog at cities of Changchun, Harbin, and Shenyang in Northeast China. Images were recognized for facial expressions by FaceReaderTM to read out eight emotional expressions: neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and contempt. The number of images by women was larger than that by men. Compared to images from Changchun, those from Shenyang harbored higher neutral degree, which showed a positive relationship with the distance of forest park from downtown. In Changchun, the angry, surprised, and disgusted degrees decreased with the increase of distance of forest park from downtown, while the happy and disgusted degrees showed the same trend in Shenyang. In forest parks at city center and remote-rural areas, the neutral degree was positively correlated with the angry, surprised and contempt degrees but negatively correlated with the happy and disgusted degrees. In the sub-urban area the correlation of neutral with both surprised and disgusted degrees disappeared. Our study can be referred to by urban planning to evaluate the perceived well-being in urban forests through analyzing facial expressions of images from SNS.

The similiarity of facial expressions in response to emotion-inducing films in reared-apart twins

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 1475-1483 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Kendler ◽  
L. J. Halberstadt ◽  
F. Butera ◽  
J. Myers ◽  
T. Bouchard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Minimal Contact

BackgroundWhile the role of genetic factors in self-report measures of emotion has been frequently studied, we know little about the degree to which genetic factors influence emotional facial expressions.MethodTwenty-eight pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart were shown three emotion-inducing films and their facial responses recorded. These recordings were blindly scored by trained raters. Ranked correlations between twins were calculated controlling for age and sex.ResultsTwin pairs were significantly correlated for facial expressions of general positive emotions, happiness, surprise and anger, but not for general negative emotions, sadness, or disgust or average emotional intensity. MZ pairs (n=18) were more correlated than DZ pairs (n=10) for most but not all emotional expressions.ConclusionsSince these twin pairs had minimal contact with each other prior to testing, these results support significant genetic effects on the facial display of at least some human emotions in response to standardized stimuli. The small sample size resulted in estimated twin correlations with very wide confidence intervals.

scholarly journals The Spirituality and Religiosity of Transgender Persons and Mental Well-being

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szymon Niemiec
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Trans Men ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Transgender Persons ◽  
Strong Relation ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
Personality Construct

The purpose of the study was to analyze the role of spirituality and religiosity for the well-being of transgender people in Poland. Spirituality understood as a personality construct referring to the natural human’s pursuit of transcendence was included in the study as a component of three indicators: religious spirituality, ethical sensitivity, and harmony, where religiosity was defined as interest in religious issues, beliefs, prayer, experience, and worship. It was assumed in the study that happiness, as one of the explanations of human well-being, is related to positive emotions, optimal experiences, and the meaning of life. The study involved 141 transgender persons (90 trans-men and 51 trans-women) aged 14 to 57. The results indicate a strong relation between spirituality, and weak relationship between religiosity and felt happiness. At the same time, it was not found that spirituality influenced the level of happiness depending on the level of religiosity and differences in spirituality due to religion.

scholarly journals The Accuracy Validation of FireFACE Software in Analyzing Facial Expressions of Urban Forest Visitors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongxu Wei ◽  
Ping Liu
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Shenyang City ◽  
Validation Test ◽  
Tree Population ◽  
The Difference

The construction of sustainable urban forests follows the principle that well-being in people is promoted when exposed to tree population. Facial expression is the direct representation of inner emotion that can be used to assess real-time perception in urban forests. The emergence and change of facial expressions for forest visitors are in an implicit process. The reserved character of oriental races strengthens the requirement for the accuracy to recognize expressions through instrument rating. In this study, a dataset was established with 2,886 randomly photographed faces from visitors in a constructed urban forest park and a promenade at summertime in Shenyang City at Northeast China. Six experts were invited to choose 160 photos in total with 20 images representing one of eight typical expressions as angry, contempt, disgusted, happy, neutral, sad, scared, and surprised emotions. The FireFACE ver. 3.0 software was used to test hit-ratio validation as the accuracy (ac.) to match machine-recognized photos with those identified by experts. According to Kruskal-Wallis test on the difference from averaged scores in 20 recently published papers, contempt (ac.=0.40%, P=0.0038) and scared (ac.=25.23%, P=0.0018) expressions cannot pass the validation test. Therefore, the FireFACE can be used as an instrument to analyze facial expression from oriental people in urban forests but contempt and scared expressions cannot be identified.

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