Abstract
Emotional well-being manages people’s emotions and copes with challenges throughout life. Positive emotion and emotion regulation have beneficial effects on overall emotional well-being (Colombo et al., 2021; Quoidbach et al., 2010; Yoon & Kim, 2022). In the sensory perception of humans, touch interaction is regarded as a vital contributor to regulating our emotions. Considering that appropriate touch experience can lead to more positive emotion regulation, the study attempts to figure out how the touch experience relates to positive emotion regulation. Among several factors of tactile perception, our focus was on texture and weight, which are presumably closely related to positive emotion regulation. For the study, an experiment was designed in which LEGO-based blocks were used as an experimental stimulus in the sense that LEGO as a toy is highly associated with positive emotion. In the experiment, 20 participants were recruited and asked to make assembled ones with combinations of softness (soft and hard) and weight (light and heavy). The findings indicate that the combination of Soft-Heavy was most preferred among the participants because it gave them a sense of comfort and stability. Moreover, diverse positive emotions were associated depending on the levels of texture and weight. A possible implication of the findings is that a particular combination of product materials' texture and weight could facilitate positive emotion regulation. Limitations and future studies are also discussed at the end.
Keywords
touch experience, material and emotion, product material, positive emotion regulation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.542
Citation
Cha, J., Kim, C.,and Chae, S.(2023) Exploring the effect of softness and weight of materials on positive emotion regulation: a case study of LEGO, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.542
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Exploring the effect of softness and weight of materials on positive emotion regulation: a case study of LEGO
Emotional well-being manages people’s emotions and copes with challenges throughout life. Positive emotion and emotion regulation have beneficial effects on overall emotional well-being (Colombo et al., 2021; Quoidbach et al., 2010; Yoon & Kim, 2022). In the sensory perception of humans, touch interaction is regarded as a vital contributor to regulating our emotions. Considering that appropriate touch experience can lead to more positive emotion regulation, the study attempts to figure out how the touch experience relates to positive emotion regulation. Among several factors of tactile perception, our focus was on texture and weight, which are presumably closely related to positive emotion regulation. For the study, an experiment was designed in which LEGO-based blocks were used as an experimental stimulus in the sense that LEGO as a toy is highly associated with positive emotion. In the experiment, 20 participants were recruited and asked to make assembled ones with combinations of softness (soft and hard) and weight (light and heavy). The findings indicate that the combination of Soft-Heavy was most preferred among the participants because it gave them a sense of comfort and stability. Moreover, diverse positive emotions were associated depending on the levels of texture and weight. A possible implication of the findings is that a particular combination of product materials' texture and weight could facilitate positive emotion regulation. Limitations and future studies are also discussed at the end.