Haptic Sensation and Instrumental Transgression
Corbin Graper, Samuel Soukup, Megan Landvatter, and Kayla Scott
February 15, 2016
Rationale for the Study
The rationale for this study is that haptics go beyond the intimate touch of a relationship. In this study, they use musical instruments to show this for “every musical instrument defines ways in which to be touched, felt, activated” (Rebelo, 27). The authors examine the performer-instrument relationship, which could be seen as a separate, committed relationship. They view this relationship as one that involves an intimate and personal connection. Throughout the paper, the authors discuss the very unique relationship between the performer and the instrument.
Method
In this study, Deleuze and Guattari focused on five different subjects: Instrumental Space, Instrumental Entities and Difference, Smooth Space and the Haptic, Performing the Erotic and Taboo and Transgression in Performance. In the first section, the authors discuss the Instrumental Space, or the way that the performer engages with the instrument. They propose that the instrument is more than a tool, it’s an entity. Essentially, an instrument is, “an entity that carries its own dynamics, expression, sociality and ecology” (Rebelo, 28).
Instrumental Entities and Difference suggests that an instrument is not defined by its function, but rather by its cultural context. Throughout this portion of the study, the authors note that instruments are not always made with the ideal musical materials. Instead, instruments are constructed by selecting the materials that are available in consideration with the cultural context. For example, the instruments made in Africa will differ than those made in America because the resources are different in each environment. These variations, the authors propose, ultimately impact the relationship between the performer and the instrument.
The third thing they looked at was Smooth Space and the Haptic “The discussion of the haptic in performance is not about the sense of touch, but rather the description of a particular type of sensory space” (Rebelo, 28-29). The audience gets lost in the music and depending on the kind of music that is being listened to, it is highly more likely to have an erotic feeling or a notice in sexual difference because of the performer. In general, this section discusses the intimate relationship that haptic plays within the performer's invisible communication system. The performer feels a certain way while playing an instrument, and hopes that the audience is able to relate or emotionally connect the same way the performer does.
Performing the Erotic, this section talks about overcoming the gap between the musician and the audience. The relationship between the musician and the instrument is a personal one, the most skilled musicians have the ability to share the feeling that they are having with the audience. That is what the article is calling “performing the erocitc,”
Taboo and Transgression in Performance brings the audience into the discussion. Basically, this section pairs well with the previous part, Performing the Erotic. The Taboo and Transgression in Performance states that the audience becomes involved by witnessing the performance and by avoiding taboos such as coughing, leaving during the show, or talking. Similarly, the audience becomes involved by giving applause and by listening intently. When an artist performs in a public space, they play a role in the Taboo and Transgression in Performance portion of this discussion.
Results
The results of Pedro Rebelo’s article spoke loudly in the section regarding Smooth Space and the Haptic where it summarized the entire article relating the instrument and its player as a “two-part” machine. The first part of the machine is the player who has an emotional component while the second part of the machine, the instrument, communicates the emotion from the player through sound and touch. For example, listening to a variety of music genres ranging from classical to hip hop can cause one to feel a variety of emotions which the performer and audience can relate.
Discussion
As a group, we felt this article was very insightful and deep which, at times, made it harder for us to conceptualize what the point of the article was. It takes a look at the meaning of haptic, which we know as a physical sensation of touch, and relating it more to an emotional sense that taps into the Invisible Communication System. We all as a group have played a musical instrument at one point, and we all have different feelings and emotions related to the instrument. The article and study introduces a new element of haptics that none of us have thought about before. The idea of feeling something emotionally is very similar to feeling something physically. Both ideas involve haptic which is processed invisibly by those affected by it, thus resulting in a display of emotions.
Lying To Get A Date: The Effect of Facial Physical Attractiveness
On The Willingness to Deceive Prospective Dating Partners
Corbin Graper, Samuel Soukup, Megan Landvatter, and Kayla Scott
March 2, 2016
Rationale for Study
In the journal Lying to Get a Date: The Effect of Facial Physical Attractiveness on the Willingness to Deceive Prospective Dating Partners, the authors conducted two studies observing people’s willingness to lie to attractive members of the opposite sex to initiate a date. The first study had the participants describe their characteristics to prospective dates, while the second study rated their willingness to lie about themselves to earn the interest of their potential date. While physical attractiveness played a large part in this study, participants were also asked to disclose information about their personality, past relationships, income, career, and intelligence. Basically, the authors were searching for deception. They wanted evidence that people will lie in order to be desired by a member of the opposite sex.
Methods
The researches gave a survey to 81 undergraduate college students. In the study, 40 men and 41 women participated in order to fulfill a course requirement. They were given four photographs to rate on a scale of one to seven. One meant that the individual in the photograph was not attractive, and seven meant the person was very attractive. After asking participants this question, they were then asked to rate their desire to go on a date with the person on the same scale. Finally, the students completed a questionnaire that asked them if they would present themselves differently in order to get a date with the person. This was also recorded using a seven point scale.
Results
When the results were analyzed, it was discovered that both sexes desired to date the more physically attractive individual over the less attractive individual. Additionally, both men and women were willing to use deception to earn a date. Furthermore, lying was most common when the participants were asked to rate their physical attributes to the more attractive person. While the responses of the men and women were very similar in this study, they did vary in one regard. Men were marginally more willing to lie about their career to the attractive woman. While women were willing to lie, the men were more apt to deceive in this category.
Discussion
Both sexes used deception to earn a date with a physically attractive individual in this study. These lies were likely used to bring about similarities among the prospective couple. The authors believe that the motives behind the deception are that of self-presentation and self-protective. For example, men and women may use lying because they believe that dissimilarities will lead to rejection. They may also be using deception because of the desire to have an attractive date. Past research cited in the study also states that people conform to the standards of prospective dates.
Reflection
We believe that the study accurately reflects the social norm regarding dating. When presented with an attractive individual as a potential mate, it is not surprising that people would use deception to earn a date. The saying goes that “there are plenty of fish in the sea.” While this is true, there is only one of each type of fish. If you find someone to be attractive, it is likely that another person does as well. For people who are vying for affection, lying may be the way to gain that attention. We certainly do not endorse lying and would recommend that everyone be honest when pursuing a relationship, but we believe that the authors were accurate with the article.
See the video experiment above that shows how physical attractiveness ranges and how like-minded and similar attractions pair together to make a "match."
Kinesics Study
Corbin Graper, Samuel Soukup, Megan Landvatter, Kayla Scott
March 21, 2016
Rationale for Study
The study examined a dog’s ability to discriminate the presence of their owner through facial expressions and body language. Past research of this subject has demonstrated that dogs can differentiate familiar faces from unfamiliar faces. The authors conducted the study to confirm this animal’s ability to recognize a familiar person through visual cues. Analyzing kinesics in this form added an interesting element to this area of nonverbal communication because it employed a unique variable, a dog.
Methods
The owners volunteered themselves and their pets to be subjects in these experiments. In order to conduct a thorough study, the experiment was done in three parts. First, the subject was put in a room with a box on the opposite side of the room. Inside the box, two people were kneeling, through the facial holes the dogs were instructed to identify the owner by facial expression. Next, photos of the owners were taken and the dogs repeated the study, this time with the photos on a television screen. For the final test, owners put on ski masks to cover all features of the head except the eyes, nose and mouth. The researchers took pictures and replicated the study again with the new pictures. No dogs were harmed in the making of this study.
Results
The study found that, with the exception of one, all of the dogs were able to recognize their owners when they were made visible through holes in the box. Two-thirds of the dogs were able to detect the familiar face through life-sized pictures of the heads, and only a small minority were able to find the owner through pictures of facial features. These results indicate that dogs can recognize familiar humans by using visual information. Their discrimination is represented not only by preferential looking, but also by their active choices, including approaching the person and touching the individual with their nose. While the dogs were able to detect the human when they were presented with the entire face, they did find it difficult to determine the familiar person when they were only given select facial features, such as eyes, nose, and mouth.
Discussion
The study reasoned that there are two possible reasons that some of the dogs were unable to identify their owner’s facial expressions. First was the impaired vision of the dogs. Second, there was a problem with the
2-D images. The study reflects that the dog’s sensitivity of motion and radius of vision is greater than ours, their “visual acuity” or accuracy in discerning details is four times lower. Another issue with dog’s sense of sight was the breed of the specific dogs. The study lamented that dogs with shorter snouts generally have better eyesight then that of dogs with larger noses. We hypothesized that this could be a natural adaption the short-nosed dogs have since their sense of smell isn’t nearly as good. Finally, the study reflected that animals naturally struggle with identifying 2D objects as 3D objects. Therefore, the transition from real faces to pictures may have been more difficult for them.
Reflection
This was an interesting article on the use of kinesics between human owners and their dogs. We wonder though if similar results would happen with the use other animals of similar intelligence, such as pigs or monkeys. Being that this is a in the context of “owner vs pets,” we would expect that the same outcome would occur with that of a pig and its owner and a monkey of its caretaker. This article demonstrated the unique nonverbal bond that owners have with dogs that can be determined from the owner’s facial features, body tension, and firm gestures.
Accents in the Workplace: Vocalics Study
Corbin Graper, Samuel Soukup, Megan Landvatter, Kayla Scott
April 17, 2016
Rationale for Study
The journal, Accents in the workplace: Their effects during a job interview, examined the effects of an accent in a career setting. By analyzing three different accents, the authors wanted to determine whether the vocal characteristic would have a positive or negative effect. The accents used in the study were Midwestern United States, French, and Colombian. In the beginning of the journal, the authors state that accents could be a source of discrimination in the workplace, much like race, gender, or age. Through the study, the authors wanted to examine the impact of the accents and their influence on employment decisions.
Methods
The sample for this study consisted of 63 college students, all of whom identified English as their first language. Students from the psychology and engineering departments of two Chicago universities were recruited to participate in the study. Men accounted for 2/3 of the sample size. There were several ethnicities included within the sample, but the majority of the participants were Caucasian, accounting for 61.9%.
Participants were asked to make a hiring recommendation for a human resources position based on the audio clip of an interview. In every situation, the candidates were being interviewed by a man with a Midwestern accent. The narrative content remained the same for each scenario, with the exception of the accent. Following the interview, the participants were required to evaluate the candidate using a series of questions. At the end, participants were asked to identify the accent of the candidate in each clip.
Results
Results from the study were rather inconclusive. The Midwestern candidate was more likely to be hired, but the margin for his success was not significant. French was the accent that was the least favored, and the Colombian accent fell in the middle. However, the Colombian accent was not highly recognized as strictly Colombian, so the participants could have perceived it as an accent from another Latin country. While the results did not have a strong impact on the hiring decisions, the study did find that the participants were more likely to identify and like the Midwestern candidate.
Discussion
While many studies have examined the effects of race and gender in the workplace, this was one of the few to analyze the effects of accents. The results from this study show that these unique characteristics can have an impact on hiring decisions. This study is an excellent example of the Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis, which states that people are more likely to view those similar to them positively. When participants could identify with an accent, they were more likely to give them a better evaluation. While the authors stand by the research, they recognized that other vocal characteristics such as pitch or pace could have been a factor in the evaluations.
Reflection
As a group, we found this study intriguing. Race, gender, and age are notorious for impacting the job search, but this study took a different angle by examining accents. While the accents may not have been a determining factor, we still find it interesting that participates tended to rate the Midwestern candidate higher in terms of likability. We believe the Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis to be true, and we think that we are all somewhat guilty of favoring those who are more like us. We are interested to see how the class reacts to this study, and we hope that more research is done in this area of vocalics.
Interpersonal Nonverbal Communication in International Business
Eye Behaviors: Americans vs. Foreign Business People
Corbin Graper, Samuel Soukup, Megan Landvatter, Kayla Scott
May 1, 2016
Rationale for Study
The article focuses on the implications of nonverbal communication in relation to international business situations. Authors, Gita Govahi and Sid Ward, recognized that haptics, proxemics, chronemics, and oculesics play an important role in conducting international business. Differences in culture make understanding these nonverbal cues all the more crucial, and the authors wanted to provide an exercise for professors to use in the classroom to relay the importance of these cues to their students.
Methods
To begin the exercise, students must be divided into three different groups. Each person is assigned a different letter: a, b, or c. These letters decide which role the students will play in the exercise. One letter represents a buyer, one a seller, and one an observer. Groups are then formed with one of each letter, so a buyer, a seller, and an observer. Students cannot reveal which role they have been assigned. Each student will be given a guide for their role and will be given a description of their designated nonverbal cues. The task given to the students is to negotiate a business deal. By playing the role of a person from a differing culture, the students are able to recognize the cultural differences and observe the effects that they have on international business.
Discussion
If students are going to be successful in the international business world, they need to encounter these potential culture situations in advance. Having experience with these situations will allow students to be better business people and give them an advantage within the business realm. While international communication is often overlooked, in today’s world, being able to effectively communicate with those of differing cultures is becoming an increasingly important skill. As technology advances and business expands beyond borders, the ability to communicate internationally will become immensely valuable. While the exercise discussed in this paper may seem rather simple, it is a way to prepare students for the international business world, and that makes it incredibly worthwhile.
Reflection
As a group, we found this exercise interesting. Although we have discussed the cultural differences in nonverbal behaviors throughout this course, we thought that it was a great idea to simulate those differences through an in-class exercise. Exposing students to another culture’s behaviors prepares students for the realities awaiting them in the business world and gives them added experience in handling these situations.