Affect and self-efficacy infuse the experience of ambivalent photographs

Abstract

Ambivalent pictures offer several interpretations of different valence-e.g., some photographs by Claudia Otto document scenes which can be perceived as sad or happy, dangerous or sweet, and so on. We show that task experiences influence the experienced valence of these images. Previous work already documented that responses to images are task-dependent and self-created insights heighten pleasure. A resulting positive mood and high self-efficacy might broaden attention to positive valence. In contrast, low self-efficacy leads to the prediction of negative task experiences and strengthens the salience of a positive experience. In our study, participants rated the valence of ambivalent photographs to be more positive after positive feedback regarding the accomplishment of a precedent puzzle. We revealed a trend of positive feedback being more effective when it followed negative experiences. The experience of ambivalent images is strongly linked to mood and self-efficacy and both is influenced by taskexperiences in psycho-aesthetic studies.

Keywords

• empirical aesthetics
• ambivalence
• photography
• valence
• self-efficacy
• affect
• art & science