How preferred ear for listening moderates emotional cognitions in the prediction of personality

Two studies investigate how cognitions of aurally presented information interact with aural preference (self-reported preferred ear for listening) in the prediction of personality. In Study 1, participants provided attractiveness cognitions of various statements after listening to aurally presented material. Aural preference x attractiveness interactions significantly predicted Extraversion and Neuroticism. In Study 2, participants provided cognitions of pleasantness from various scenarios. An aural preference x pleasantness interaction significantly predicted Neuroticism. Although other interpretations are possible, I conclude that these findings support the idea of aural preference as a useful measure of hemispheric asymmetry, such that the right hemisphere (left aural preference) provides facilitation of emotional expression, whereas the left hemisphere (right aural preference) provides suppression. My findings support a more historical view of emotional asymmetry than the more modem approach-avoidance perspective and suggest that moderating effects of hemispheric asymmetry are important to include in studies investigating emotions associated with personality.

Do our feelings leak through the clothes we wear?

There is a substantial body of literature that suggests that clothing and more particularly fashion is a form of communication. It communicates how we want to be seen by others as well as how we see ourselves. But does it communicate how we feel? This paper draws a link between symbolic and emotional communication by suggesting that fashion changes our internal feelings and that many of these emotions are expressed to others through symbols such as the clothes we wear. A conceptual framework is presented explaining the effects of clothing on an individual consumer. This framework classifies the fashion effect into internally and externally communicated meanings. Knowledge of how fashion is used as a form of emotional expression is particularly important for those fashion retailers who display the clothing they sell to engender positive feelings that may then lead to purchase behaviour.