A camera in hand enhances emotions
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Photography is a great way to not only preserve the memory of pleasant moments, but also to relive those emotions again, but, according to American psychologists, the photographer can also experience certain emotions during work, and the photographing process can strengthen them. For example, if a person captures pleasant moments, then the pleasure from the process increases, if it is necessary to shoot something bad, the negative emotions become aggravated.
To such conclusions, a group of psychologists came after a series of experiments involving several thousand people. All volunteers were engaged in any business - went on bus tours to inspect sights, went to concerts, museums or in a cafe. Participants were divided into groups - in one it was necessary to use a camera, in another people just enjoyed the process.
After the end of the cultural program, each participant was to evaluate the degree of pleasure received and the involvement in the process by the psychometric scale.
As a result, scientists found that people photographing what was happening around were more enjoyable, for example, visitors to cafes or restaurants who photographed their plate directly during a meal evaluated the degree of their pleasure on average 1.16 points higher, who just enjoyed dinner or dinner. Also, experts noted that the effect of the thought of a person who reflects on what kind of photos can be taken is reminiscent of the one that arises with the photographer in the process of shooting.
In some cases, psychologists noted an increase in involvement in the process - an experiment in the museum showed that participants with cameras stayed longer at exhibition exhibits and looked at them better (in this case, scientists were helped by special glasses with the function of tracking eye movements).
But experts also revealed the opposite effect: if a person did not like what he was forced to do or watch at a certain moment, the need to photograph only intensified the negative emotions. As an example, scientists described the case in a virtual safari, where the experiment participants watched the lions attacking the buffaloes - as a result, the group with cameras got less pleasure from viewing, compared to those who simply watched the predator attack process.
The positive effect of the camera was not manifested in the hands and if active involvement in the process, for example, when participants were asked to build any figures from marshmallow, spaghetti or waffle, the enjoyment of the process was received approximately equally and a group with cameras and a group without them.
As a result of their observations, American psychologists made the following conclusions: a camera and the process of photographing what is happening around can have an ambiguous effect on pleasure. In the plans of experts to study whether the number of photos taken affects the perception, and also whether the photographing process can affect the memory of a person.