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

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

📣 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...

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!!

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

📢 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...

💃🧠 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...

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

Thomas and I just gave a presentation in the TeaP! I appreciated the many audience joining us😊 #TeaP2025

Very excited! #TeaP2025

I will be attending #TeaP2025 and giving an oral presentation on March 10 at 17:00! The title is "Towards New Horizons in Cultural Empirical Aesthetics", and together with Prof. Thomas Jacobsen, we will introduce approaches to cross-cultural research in empirical aesthetics. Looking forward to it😊

Excited to share our new preprint! Our research reveals that people can simultaneously experience fear toward AI while still accepting it. Hitsuwari, J., & Takano, R. (2025). Associating Attitudes towards AI and Ambiguity: The Distinction of Acceptance and Fear of AI. doi.org/10.21203/rs....

I was interviewed by web media! The article provides a detailed summary of my ph.D. studies and my current postdoc research. It's in Japanese, but I’d appreciate it if you could read it with translation! My boss, Thomas Jacobsen, also makes an appearance😊 www.recruit.co.jp/blog/guestta...

A new paper is out! This study examines hostile cognitions and emotions after playing Cyberball in Japanese adults and children. Huge thanks to my supervisor Yusuke Moriguchi & my collaborator @rkuwamizu.bsky.social ! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I really like the paper—it demonstrates that a profound aesthetic experience is possible even without resolving ambiguity or uncertainty!

Unfortunately, my MSCA proposal was not selected this time. However, I received valuable feedback, and I hope to refine my ideas and apply again in the future. Many thanks to the reviewers and the organizing committee for their time and constructive comments!

I had the opportunity to present at an online research showcase event. Around 50 participants joined, both online and in person in Tokyo. I hope my research sparked some interest and curiosity! with @hayataka88.bsky.social

Our new preprint is out! It explores how thinking about God influences self-recognition and AI preferences among Christians and Shintoists in Japan. I focus on the intersection of aesthetics, religion, and culture, including preferences for AI art. Would love to hear your thoughts!

📣 New Paper Announcement! 🎉🥳 The perceptual primacy of feeling: Affectless visual machines explain a majority of variance in human visually evoked affect | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #neuroaesthetics #empiricalaesthetics #neuroskyence #compneurosky

New year, new paper from the Social Brain Sciences team! ✨✨Very excited to share this paper presenting 3 pre-registered experiments on the perceived morality of AI-generated (visual) art, led by ace neuroaesthetics postdoc Ionela Bara! Out now in Cognition! 🧠🎨🤖 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bookmarked!!!

I will be there🇩🇪

Just applied to ECP 2025! ecp2025.eu

Very interested in participating in this conference!!! @escross.bsky.social Arts Engagement and Aesthetic Experience – Bridging the Gap between Arts and Science sbs.ethz.ch/conference.h...

Please follow our team's new Instagram account! www.instagram.com/experimental...

Our latest paper🫶 Hitsuwari, J., & Nomura, M. (2024). Comparison of ambiguity and aesthetic impressions in haiku poetry between experts and novices. Poetics, 107, 101944. doi.org/10.1016/j.po... Preprint: doi.org/10.21203/rs....

First post on Bluesky! hitsuwari-jimpei.com