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Chapter 298 - 296 Emotion Induction

Chapter 298: Chapter 296 Emotion Induction

Knock, knock, knock——

"Enter." Nan Zhubin called, looking over naturally.

Short flat hair, black-framed glasses, a faint unshaven beard, wearing a loose school uniform that completely obscures any body details.

A very standard image of a high school boy, and one who seems to perform well academically.

"Hello, teacher."

Upon seeing Nan Zhubin, the student immediately bowed, a 60-degree bow with his head down, and then stood somewhat awkwardly by the door.

"Hello, classmate, please sit down." Nan Zhubin quickly pointed to the seat opposite him.

Comparing to university students and adults in society, conducting experiments and psychological consultation with high school students is much more convenient.

——Because high school students exhibit an astonishingly high level of obedience when facing someone with the identity of a "teacher."

But everything has its pros and cons. This level of obedience allows high school students to extremely cooperate with the process in teacher-hosted experiments, not straying off course to ask random questions or cause disturbances;

Yet in psychology experiments, the factors affecting research are far more than just the "experiment process."

The state of the experiment subject is also an important additional variable that influences the experiment.

For example, right now, although the high school student is polite and cooperative, he is extremely reserved and tense.

Today’s micro expressions data collection for Nan Zhubin and his group is adapted from an Emotion Induction experiment paradigm.

Emotion-related experiments require subjects to initially be in as calm a state as possible, otherwise, it may cause a lot of interference.

Being in too low a state of "nervousness" is not okay, nor is being in too high a state of "excitement."

——The latter is the reason why Nan Zhubin chose to collect data from male students, while female students were assigned to Chonghui.

Yet the "nervous" emotion, accompanied by "politeness" in the student in front of him, could potentially overshadow the target emotions Nan Zhubin and his team want to explore.

Fortunately, the one hosting this data gathering is Nan Zhubin.

"No worries, relax." Nan Zhubin deepened his voice, smoothing his tone.

Soothed with just words.

In less than half a minute, he saw the satisfactory change in the student.

...

The experiment had a good start.

Because he needed to be alone with the students, the once-monitorless consultation room was equipped with cameras after being converted into a studio.

"Classmate——" Nan Zhubin began reciting the instructions according to the procedure.

"We are about to conduct a short psychological experiment. Throughout this process, we will use this camera to record your natural reactions."

Nan Zhubin pointed at the camera beside him, then gestured towards the computer.

"Please wear the headset and pay attention to the center of the computer screen. We will sequentially present some pictures, audio, and text content. You don’t need to do anything, just react as naturally as possible to their appearance."

As a new experiment subject had to be swapped every few minutes, Nan Zhubin kept the instructions extremely brief.

Some lazy experimenters even set the instructions as a screensaver on the computer screen to give themselves more breathing room.

But Nan Zhubin felt that his voice could bring more benefits to the experiment, helping with the accuracy of the data collected, so he chose to put in more effort.

Of course, while Nan Zhubin and the students referred to it as an "experiment," it was actually just relatively simple "data collection." Compared to a real experiment, the process had some reductions.

For example, there was no conventional "experiment practice."

Nan Zhubin observed the student’s response.

He said, "Alright, let’s officially begin."

The computer screen flashed, and a picture appeared.

——[On the basketball court, the class basketball team won the championship, everyone cheered and high-fived each other.]

——[After class, two deskmate girls shared songs using one pair of earphones, smiles spreading.]

——[In the community bushes, a little boy built a shelter for stray cats, while a little girl petted and fed the cats.]

——[In the sunlight-filled café by the window, a girl tasted a cream cake adorned with strawberries.]

——[...]

After each picture displayed, there was a pause of about 15 seconds to allow for significant changes upon first glance, and to give students some time to immerse, react, and be influenced.

Nan Zhubin slightly leaned back, his vision covering the student’s reactions and the camera’s screen.

On the screen, the student stared squarely at the computer, fully focused.

In Nan Zhubin’s eyes, the student’s face seemed divided into numerous blocks by transparent lines, each lighting up with special changes when the computer’s images shifted.

[Corner of the mouth uplifted, then lips pursed.]

[Slight movement inside the mouth, possibly the tongue on the palate.]

[Now eyebrows relax, gaze disperses, attention unconsciously begins to fluctuate.]

[Lower eyelids slightly wrinkled, forming crow’s feet—wait, crow’s feet at this age?]

These images presented were all original works from Chonghui and Bai Qinghua’s research groups, part of them taken with real people, part drawn illustrations.

Fifteen pictures representing positive emotions quickly finished displaying.

Then two neutral images were shown as a transition.

In this section, nothing noteworthy in micro expressions was recorded.

Then, new pictures appeared.

——[A hand with bulging veins gripping a pen, a test paper spread out on the table marked with blanks and red crosses.]

——[A student eating alone in a canteen, the surrounding crowd blurred and faded.]

——[On the twilight track of the sports field, a student’s back appears lonely, shadows elongated.]

——[An electronic clock showing [23:59], with piles of review materials and coffee cups on the table.]

——[Funeral.]

——[...]

As this batch of images played.

The student shifted in the chair, seemingly a bit uneasy.

Compared to the first fifteen images, these fifteen images had a much greater impact and also elicited a wider variety of emotions.

Thus, changes in the student’s facial expressions increased significantly this time.

[Inner corners of the eyebrows raised.]

[Corners of the mouth pulled down, lower lip slightly quivering.]

[Gaze shifted for a moment, averted, then had to refocus back.]

[Frequent blinking.]

[Clenched teeth, swallowing motions increased.]

[...]

OK, image display completed.

Compared to the beginning, even though only a few minutes had passed, the student now exhibited a slight fatigue.

The repeated switching between positive and negative emotions was like bending an iron rod in two directions at high frequency, which was actually more tiring than being submerged in negative emotions for a long time.