New paper is out! 🎉 Back in 2023, a PNAS study found something wild: thinking about God makes you feel small, makes you more aware of how imperfect humans are, and then makes you more willing to let AI decide things for you. So we tried it in Japan, with Christian and Shinto practitioners.

Presented at IACCP in Leuven, Belgium! I shared our cross-cultural study on ikebana aesthetic appreciation. There weren't many aesthetics-related talks, but I found lots of cultural psychology theory I'd love to build on in my own research.

New preprint led by @lucasmolleman.bsky.social investigates social information use across the human lifespan. Testing >40,000 participants aged 6-80 in museums in Berlin and Japan. psyarxiv.com/hec96

New paper! Ambiguity tolerance has been a quiet side project of mine for years, and this is my first neuroscience take on it. A preregistered conceptual replication in a Japanese sample: the predicted associations didn't hold, though one came close to the original effect. Glad I finished it.

IAEA 2026 in Jena @iaea-jena2026.bsky.social. The biggest highlight: organizing our symposium "Cultural Perspectives in Empirical Aesthetics" with Thomas, Magda, Robbie, Kohinoor, and Tobiasz. A cultural lens into this field matters a lot to me, and the conversation felt like a real step forward.

🌸 New paper out! We examined symmetry and aesthetic judgments in ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Symmetry generally enhanced perceived beauty, and the effect was stronger for people without ikebana experience. Likely the first international quantitative study on ikebana!

I attended the APA Division 10 (Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts) conference in Omaha, Nebraska! The conference ran March 13–14, and I had planned to be there for both days.

I contributed to the Nature Reviews Psychology Journal Club, highlighting work by Winfried and my supervisor Thomas, and also discussing contributions by Martin @mskov01.bsky.social and Marcos. I’m excited by the lively and growing discussions in this field! Read it here: rdcu.be/eVjcb

Nature Reviews Psychology@natrevpsychol.nature.com · 9mo ago

The distinctiveness of aesthetic emotions Journal Club by Jimpei Hitsuwari go.nature.com/4s5ayza

New preprint out! This is the first fMRI study on the neural basis of haiku appreciation. Low-ambiguity haiku were rated as more beautiful and strongly activated default mode network regions (posterior cingulate cortex and left inferior parietal lobule).

Crossroads of Research and Experience of Art (CREA, crea-workshop.com) 2025 will take place on December 19th at the Aesthetics & Learning Lab (IWM, Tübingen). This year’s theme: Learning in and from Museums. We will host interactive, practical exercises, and plenty of idea-sharing #MuseumResearch

CREA

crea-workshop.com

📣 New Paper Alert! My PhD student Hannah Ovadia and I wrote a concise update on “The Role of the Default Mode Network (DMN) in Aesthetic Appeal” to synthesize evidence, highlight issues, and most importantly, consider theoretical alternatives. Free access: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lz-h8MqMi...

Welcome to the IAEA Aesthetics Conference 2026 in Jena! We are delighted to announce that the International Association for Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA) will hold its next international conference in Jena, Germany, from 5th to 8th May. Discover more at iaea-jena2026.org (link in bio)

Poster presentation successfully completed! I had the privilege of presenting at the Aesthetics 2025 conference: "Arts Engagement and Aesthetic Experience: Bridging the Gap between Arts and Sciences" (September 28 - October 2, 2025, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland).

New paper published! It’s open access—please take a look! We developed the Japanese version of a scale to measure attitudes toward AI (ATAI). The scale captures two key factors: AI acceptance and AI fear—including the tendency to accept AI even while feeling fear.

During my three-week stay in Japan, I had the opportunity to give four presentations at two conferences (the Japanese Psychological Association and the Japanese Cognitive Science Society).

Excited to share a call for articles for a special issue of Education Sciences on #aesthetics #creativity and #emotionalintelligence @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social that I am co-editing w/ John Pellitteri and Jessica Hoffmann @iaea-aesthetics.bsky.social More: www.mdpi.com/journal/educ...

Finished my poster presentation at the Japanese Psychological Association! I explored the beauty of ikebana by quantitatively examining symmetry, a classic theme in empirical aesthetics. Since this project has only just begun, I was grateful to receive so much valuable feedback today🫶

I just came to #VSAC2025 !!! I'll give a poster presentation today about Ikebana💐 The most beautiful name tag ever!!! @vsac-social.bsky.social

Hi Bluesky! 🦋 We are the Aesthetics and Learning Lab (ALL). ALLab is based in the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. Its aim is to empirically investigate how and what can be learned from aesthetic experiences ✨ Stay tuned, for now... That's ALL folks!

Our paper on how sauna bathing affects psychological states and personality traits has just been published! @kittykat931.bsky.social Study 1 showed that regular sauna users have more vivid bodily sensation imagery and give higher aesthetic ratings to haiku.

🚨 New Publication! 🚨 📚✨ How do text and image features on book covers influence what we remember and how we evaluate them? As part of a collaborative project with @evalabs.bsky.social @univie.ac.at & literature researchers in Verona Full study in Literature (MDPI): 👉 doi.org/10.3390/lite...

EVAlabs Vienna@evalabs.bsky.social · last yr.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Turns out—yes, and it sticks with you. 📚✨ Our new article explores how text + image features on book covers affect memory and aesthetic judgement—using Italian novels as part of a collaboration with the University of Verona doi.org/10.3390/lite... @univie.ac.at

Our preprint on Bugaku (Japanese court dance) is out! Japanese and German participants watched Bugaku videos and shared their impressions. Japanese participants reported higher liking and transcendental experience, while Germans focused more on movement details. Check it out!

Just applied to #VSAC2025 !! Very excited!!

VSAC 2025@vsac-social.bsky.social · 2y ago

VSAC 2025: Call for abstracts and symposia! Submit your proposal at 2025.vsac.eu/submission We look forward to hearing about your work! #art #science #visualartofscience #conference #vsac #visualart #artscience #illusionart

I downloaded the photo from there — I’m in this pic! 😊 I really enjoyed the summer school with EVAlabs!

EVAlabs Vienna@evalabs.bsky.social · last yr.

Last September we celebrated the EVALabs' 20th anniversary, now we finally have some photos to share from the event. 🎉🥂 📷: Chris Valuch head over to our lab website to see more eva.univie.ac.at

📢 Our new paper is out! This study examined how people process haiku poetry by presenting each line sequentially (5-7-5 syllables), tracking cognitive and emotional changes throughout. We measured emotional responses using a joystick and analyzed changes in pupil size.

Streaming here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gXo...

The Aesthetic City: the Art of Urban Wellbeing in Vienna

YouTube video by The Centre for Conscious Design • The CCD

youtube.com

💃🧠 Psyched to share my latest paper in Neuron on the past, present and future of dance neuroscience research! Crazy to think where this field will be in 20 more years 🚀 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kkh3_KOmx... #PsychSciSky #neuroskyence #Dance #CognitiveNeuroscience #Neuroaesthetics #BrainScience

When cherished beliefs and intuitions turn out to not be confirmed. Not a lot of difference in the impact of art seen in museums versus on a screen in the lab. Reasons to actually test intuitions. With @kohinoordarda.bsky.social and others. 🧪 #sciart www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A comparison of art engagement in museums and through digital media - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - A comparison of art engagement in museums and through digital media

nature.com

What a wonderful symposium on Experimental Aesthetics!!! #TeaP2025