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We can watch formal dance performances in different event spaces. For example, we might watch a dance performance live on a stage, or live at home on TV, a laptop, or even a mobile phone. During the Covid-19 pandemic, opera houses streamed more dance events than ever before. People from all over the world joined these streamed performances, either in cinemas with large screens, or from the comfort of their own homes. Sometimes, these live performances were recorded, which provided people with the ability to access the performances at a later stage for on-demand watching – again, at home or in cinemas or theatres, all over the world. An intriguing empirical question worthy of study concerns how these different types of Event Space (in theatre, home) and Mode (live, recorded) impact our aesthetic experience of a dance performance? Does it matter whether we watch a dancer live in front of us on a stage, or whether we see the same dancer while sitting at home, watching a screen? And, does it matter whether the dance is recorded, or live? Empirical concert studies certainly underscore the importance of the ‘frame’ in which music is received as a component of the aesthetic experience of music (Wald-Fuhrmann et al., 2021). Some previous research with music suggests that aesthetic enjoyment of music is higher when the presentation mode is live (Swarbrick et al., 2018, 2021), while other studies suggest that the enjoyment is comparable for live and recorded concerts, but dependent on interindividual differences in musical expectations (Belfi et al., 2021). With regards to dance, to our knowledge, principled assessments of this research question remain limited. With the rise of AI-assisted software, and avatar-powered dance media during the Covid-19 pandemic, an additional research question about the Type of Dancer has moved centre-stage: In the realm of dance performance, how does the physical form a dancer takes (i.e., human vs. artificial agent/avatar) shape our perceptions and enjoyment of a dance performance? Is watching a performance of an avatar as exciting and aesthetically valued as watching a human dancer? Some previous work suggests that movement smoothness is a key factor that predicts human observers’ aesthetic experience of a humanoid robot’s movements (Miura et al., 2010; Cross et al., 2016). Finally, and most importantly, in Western dance performance work, ‘Expressivity’ is a very important factor. During professional dance education, dance students are taught to dance with emotional expressivity, and not ‘just’ to perform movements technically correctly. For experts, expressivity is what differentiates dance from other impressive bodily practices, like, for instance, gymnastics or martial arts. Dancers can perform a dance piece either simply expressing neutrality (no expressivity), or expressing some internal state or emotion (with expressivity). With two dance pieces otherwise being equal, but performed expressively by the dancer, while the other is ‘merely’ technically accurate in its performance, which piece will audiences prefer? Previous work suggests that, when shown two stimuli with the same dance movement sequence, of which one has been danced with an expressive intention by the dancer, then dance-naïve observers rate the expressive version of the sequence as more expressive, and find it more beautiful and more likable (Christensen et al., 2018, 2021). By obtaining objective movement kinematic features like acceleration and speed it has been reported that the expressive intention is translated into a more varied velocity profile and this predicts human observers’ aesthetic experience of the dance movements (Orlandi, Orgs, & Cross, 2021). To provide first answers to the above questions, we will collect audience responses to purpose-choregraphed 1-minute dance pieces during a hybrid public engagement event to take place in the ARTlab of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt/M, Germany. The audience will watch these dance pieces via different Modes (live, recorded), and the audience will be divided into different Event Spaces (at the institute Artlab that is like a theatre, or, at home). In addition, one of the pieces will be danced by a different Type of Dancer, a humanoid avatar, allowing us to compare how different types of dancers are received (human, avatar). In addition, the dancer will dance one 1-minute dance piece six times. Half of the times, he will dance the piece with expressivity, and the other half without. Hence, the audience will rate a total of six 1-minute dance pieces (3 with expressivity, 3 without). The question is: Does dance ‘Expressivity’ ‘reach’ the audience, no matter the type of Event Space (at theatre, at home), the Format (live, recorded), and the Type of Dancer (human, avatar)? We predict that the ‘Expressivity’ factor may cross through the different types of Event Space, Format, and Type of Dancer explained above; i.e., that the expressive versions of the dance pieces will be liked more, regardless of Event Space and presentation Format. The ratings that we will ask the audience members to provide will be on visual analogical scales including “how expressive was this movement?”, “how much did you like the movement?”, “how interesting did you find the movement?”, “how much would you like to see the movement again?” and “how boring did you find the movement?” all scales will be from 0 (not at all to 100 (very much).

This is a follow up experiment for the Something in the Way You Move Project. We aimed to replicate the results from Experiment 1 with a higher level of experimental control. RQ3: How do different types of dancers (avatar, human dancer) impact audiences’ aesthetic experience of a dance performance? RQ4: Two dance pieces being equal, but one is being danced with expressivity by the dancer, while the other is ‘merely’ technically perfect (i.e., without any intended expressivity), which piece will audiences prefer (i.e., rate higher in aesthetic enjoyment)? RQ5 (exploratory): What are the kinematic profiles of dance sequences that are intended to be expressive as compared to those that are not, in terms of speed, acceleration and velocity? RQ6 (exploratory): Does dance expertise modulate aesthetic judgment as a function of the above parameters? This research question is exploratory because we will not seek to control the variable dance expertise when recruiting participants, but include questions about dance experience (yes/no, ‘years of experience’, and whether they are ‘professional dancers’; yes/no). RQ7 (exploratory): Do interindividual differences like dance expertise, personality, aesthetic and emotional sensitivity have an effect on aesthetic enjoyment of dance movements as a function of our factors type of dancer and intended expressivity? Explore different rating scales To replicate the results from Experiment 1 with a higher level of experimental control, the rating scales of Experiment 2 again included liking, interest, want to see again, and boredom. Furthermore, a rating scale for ‘beauty’ was added because: 1) previous research that has shown that beauty and liking are separate dimensions of aesthetic enjoyment (J.F. Christensen et al., 2018), and we aimed to confirm or refute this finding. And 2) we aimed to explore which of the two prototypical affective responses (liking or beauty) would be more positively related to the epistemic and utilitarian emotions that may propel audiences to wish to come back to watch a dance performance (interest and want to see again), and negatively related to the emotion of aesthetic displeasure (boredom) that may cause the opposite effect. This latter aim was of course motivated by general problem of the dance performance world post-Covid-19, that we outlined in the introduction. Interindividual differences Demographics, dance experience and additional interindividual difference measures were obtained, including personality (Big Five Extra Short version; BFI-XS; (Rammstedt, Danner, Soto, & John, 2018), and a measure of aesthetic sensitivity (the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment; AReA; (Schlotz et al., 2020)). In keeping with the evidence reviewed earlier, we aimed to explore the interactions between the factors type of dancer and intended expressivity and personality, and aesthetic sensitivity. Data for Experiment 2 was obtained via Prolific©, a recognized platform for behavioural research (Peer, Rothschild, Gordon, Evernden, & Damer, 2021; Sauter, Draschkow, & Mack, 2020).

Is the use of psychological and neuroscientific methods for neuromarketing research always aligned with the principles of ethical research practice? Some neuromarketing endeavours have passed from informing consumers about available options, to helping to market as many products to consumers as possible. Needs are being engineered, using knowledge about the human brain to increase consumption further, regardless of individual, societal and environmental needs and capacities. In principle, the ground ethical principle of any scientist is to further individual, societal and environmental health and well-being with their work. If their findings can be used for the opposite, this must be part of the scientist’s considerations before engaging in such research and to make sure that the risks for misuse are minimised. Against this backdrop, we provide a series of real-life examples and a non-exhaustive literature review, to discuss in what way some practices in the neuromarketing domain may violate the Helsinki Declaration of Experimentation with Human Subjects. This declaration was set out to regulate biomedical research, but has since its inception been applied internationally also to behavioural and social research. We illustrate, point by point, how these ground ethical principles should be applied also to the neuromarketing domain. Indisputably, the growth in consumption is required due to current prevalent economical models. Thus, in the final part of the paper, we discuss how alternative models may be promotable to a larger public, aided by more ethical marketing endeavours, based on neuroscientific discoveries about the human brain. We propose this as a philosophical question, a point of discussion for the future, to make neuromarketing as a discipline, fit for the future, respecting the ethical implications of this research.

Denna studie har för avsikt att belysa vikten av att ha väl fungerande kommunikation inom ett företag. Fokus ligger på kommunikation och information. Det gäller kommunikation genom möten mellan olika personalgrupper för att ha ett väl fungerande informationsflöde. Det gäller även kommunikation mellan olika verktyg som används för att arbetsuppgifter skall utföras på effektivast sätt Syftet med studien är att finna förbättringsalternativ inom den avdelning där undersökningen har utförts samt att presentera de förbättringsåtgärder som studien har kommit fram till för att kommunikation och informationsflöde skall förbättras. Studien har genomförts med en induktiv metod. Den grundar sig dels på kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med berörda personalgrupper samt på litteraturstudier. I resultatet av denna studie presenteras förslag på lösningar. Planerade mötesscheman mellan de olika personalgrupperna skulle resultera i att avdelningen kommer till rätta med problemenen med kommunikation och informationsflöden. En satsning på att komma tillrätta med kommunikationsproblemen mellan mjukvarorna skulle få berörda personalgrupper att kunna arbeta på ett mer effektivt sätt. This study intends to highlight the importance of having well-functioning communication within a company. The focus is on communication and information. This applies to communication through meetings between different groups in order to have a well-functioning information flow. This also applies to communication between different tools that are used to perform tasks most efficiently. The purpose of the study is to find improvement alternatives within the department where the study has been conducted and to present the improvement measures that the study has concluded to improve communication and information flow. The study was conducted using an inductive method. It is based in part on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with relevant staff groups and on literature studies. In the results of this study, proposals for solutions are presented. Scheduled meetings between the various groups would result in the department coming to terms with the problems of communication and information flows. An investment in solving the communication problems between the software would make the relevant groups able to work more efficiently.