Anna Shepelenko

Researchers at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have investigated how the emotional impact of advertising affects the amount people willing to donate to support animal welfare. To accomplish this, the researchers measured physiological responses such as heart rate, electrodermal activity, and facial expressions in individuals viewing various photos of dogs. The findings indicate that willingness to donate is most accurately predicted by heart rate and facial muscle activation. The study has been published in Social Psychology. 

Researchers at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at HSE University are using automatic emotion recognition technologies to study charitable behaviour. In an experiment, scientists presented 45 participants with photographs of dogs in need and invited them to make donations to support these animals. Emotional reactions to the images were determined through facial activity using the FaceReader program. It turned out that the stronger the participants felt sadness and anger, the more money they were willing to donate to charity funds, regardless of their personal financial well-being. The study was published in the journal Heliyon.

On July 13-14, 2024, the annual large-scale VKontakte festival took place at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. HSE University, as usual, participated in the event. The university's tent featured a variety of activities, including emotion recognition challenge, quizzes about artificial intelligence, IT career testing, a smile detector, VR gaming, and a blue tractor equipped with a smart sprinkler system.