The use of cardiometric and electrodermal activity indicators for the attestation of visual online content

Elena V. Brodovskaya, Anna Y. Dombrovskaya, Vladimir A. Lu-kushin, Maria A. Davydova, Elvira V. Likhacheva, Lyubov P. Nikolaeva, Aleksandr S. Ognev, Mikhail Y. Rudenko. The use of cardiometric and electrodermal activity indicators for the attestation of visual online content. Cardiometry; Issue No. 26; February 2023; p. 122-126; DOI: 10.18137/cardiometry. 2023.26.122126; Available from:

The rapid growth of digital content in all aspects of our lives is fundamentally changing the demands on what and how we post on social media. It is becoming increasingly important to assess in advance what impression this content will make on a potential user, what reaction it will provoke and what it will motivate.

The complexity of such an assessment is related to the tightening requirements for its timeliness and the need to consider its affective components alongside the rational elements of users’ reactions. And this complexity is further increased by the increasing need to assess the degree of irrationality of user reactions to different types of online content – especially visual content. This is an increasingly important task as total digitization changes both the positive and destructive effects of the transformation of various aspects of our lives [9, 10].

To achieve these tasks, cardio-oculometric detection is used, to the instrumental means of which elec-trodermal activity registration and specially organized in-depth interviewing with elements of psychoseman-tic analysis of the discussed subject or event are increasingly being added [1-8, 11-15].

Instruments and sample

In order to verify the research hypothesis, computer cardiometers «Cardiocode», portable eye-trackers «GP-3», polygraphs «Barrier-14» and «KRIS» were used.

In the course of the study, the following parameters have been recorded: indices of the cardiovascular system, parameters of the oculomotor reactions and the current state of the electrodermal activity of the respondents. The subsequent processing of the data obtained was carried out according to the algorithms developed and described in detail in the authors’ previous works [1, 3, 5, 6, 11].

The sample consists of 117 respondents (students of Moscow universities, age 18-36).

Results and discussion

During the pilot part of the study, cardiometric, oculometric and galvanic skin response (electroder-mal activity) of the respondents to a special visual object chosen by the respondents themselves were recorded in parallel. The fixation of the eyes on certain elements of such a stimulus for 10 seconds was controlled by the eye tracker and was accompanied by identical statements of the respondents ‘I don’t like’ at the first presentation and ‘I like’ at the second presentation. According to the idea of the pilot part of the experiment, all respondents had to make this comment about what they saw, regardless of how it corresponded to their actual attitude towards what they saw. After the data had been processed, an indepth interview was conducted with each respondent. During the interview the students were asked to give a detailed explanation of their findings. The focus was on the reactions that occurred when the respondents stated what was true.

27 respondents aged between 18 and 36 participated in this phase of the experiment. As a result of working with this group, the following was found.

When the gaze is fixed on unpleasant content and when there is a discrepancy between what the respondent actually thinks and what is announced, there is an intense burst of electrodermal activity. This is accompanied by a significant imbalance in the work of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems, as evidenced by cardiometric indices. In particular, the Baevsky stress index increases significantly in this case – usually by 2-3 times.

The smallest indicators of the skin galvanic response – the amplitude on the GSR curve, the area under the corresponding section of this curve and the total length of this curve are usually observed when there is a neutral or moderately positive attitude towards the presented content and a truthful verbal description of this attitude towards what the respondent focused his gaze on while registering his reactions.

It was also found that the simultaneous recording of both gaze parameters, cardiometric and electrodermal activity significantly reduced the respondent’s productivity time. Many sensors and the unusual atmosphere of such experiments start to irritate respondents after 10-15 minutes of work. This has a negative effect on the quality of the information obtained. Taking this into account, the registration was limited to the galvanic skin reaction at the final stage of the experiment. This was also done because of the sufficient informative value of this parameter. Besides, the other reason is that the respondent’s work with the polygraph allows him/her to react adequately to all procedures for a longer period of time.

After optimising the scope and type of measurements with the pilot part of the research, the following groups of respondents representing different groups of Russian youth aged 18-30 were selected for polygraph testing 1) patriotically-minded, 2) opposition-minded, 3) apolitical, according to self-determination in equal proportion. The tests were carried out using a portable polygraph «KRIS» and the corresponding software «Sheriff 7» with the use of sensors for registration of the respondents’ galvanic skin reactions (GSR). An additional phase of testing was a focused post-test interview with the pilot participants.

The test was based on the author’s set of visual objects, including images on the current political agenda related to the Ukrainian crisis and the intensification of global political confrontation in 2022.The source of the images was the most popular from digital communities of young people and other platforms in the Russian segment of social media.

In the first phase, more than 30 visual objects were selected through expert evaluation by academic experts in the fields of political science, sociology, history and psychology. The final sample consisted of 12 images from social media, divided into 6 pairs according to the differential principle, most relevant to the objectives of the study and taking into account the peculiarities of the automated polygraph test.

It turned out that support for Russia’s special military operation and patriotic political modality is of a different nature. The most frequent reaction among this group of respondents is direct aggression towards official Ukrainian symbols (flag, coat of arms, political map). These images form the highest values of skin galvanic reaction and in the post-test interview the respondents show obvious discomfort. Images reflect- ing the affiliation of a number of Russian territories to Ukraine create dissonance, and images of Russian soldiers evoke a simultaneous feeling of fear and pride for family and relatives. This feeling is most pronounced among women. Nevertheless, it correlates with support for partial mobilization and a sense of collective security, which is the main demand of this group of youth.

Respondents’ reactions fall into the categories of ‘friend or foe’, ‘victory or defeat’ and ‘hero or traitor’. Aggression erupts quite quickly but is unstable and subsides by the end of the test, indicating a low risk of escalation into real political activity, including mass protests. Moreover, the correlation of political aggression with personal psycho-emotional characteristics including initiative, low stress resistance, irascibility, which is the most serious attitude to the perception of current events and informational reasons was revealed. Additional testing of a number of respondents on images of animals confirms the dominance of the ‘fight’ response in the presence of any stimulus irritant in these types of Russian youth.

Another group of patriotic respondents does not make clear demands and forms a significant emotional reaction to the images, with a generally calm attitude towards current political processes. In this case, the strongest emotional reaction is explained by personal experience and the presence in the individual’s consciousness of the contours and conditions under which their consumption was last observed. The strongest reactions were observed to images of military and peaceful symbols, which are actively disseminated on the Internet, social media and messengers. Most revealing is the comparison of the overall GSR curve for the two designated groups of respondents. The study revealed a correlation between the respondents’ immersion in political information flows in social media and their attitudes towards such content. In the course of the test, the respondent recalled the most popular internet memes and often demonstrated an ironic attitude towards the political processes and events in question, emphasizing a non-serious attitude towards them.

Thus, it was found that high involvement in political information flows gradually reduces susceptibility, involvement and civic activity, which forms the risks of involving these groups in opposition and protest information flows. On the contrary, the first group of patriotic respondents who are weakly involved in 124 | Cardiometry | Issue 26. February 2023

the current agenda and do not follow events on social media, who learn about the Ukrainian crisis and other current events by inertia from various sources, including interpersonal communication, show a lack of understanding of images with political symbols and images.

The group of opposition respondents shows greater homogeneity and increased reaction to content containing Ukrainian official symbols. The greatest reaction was observed to the image of the political map of Ukraine in 2014 and the stele at the entrance to the city of Kherson in the colors of the state flag. When explaining their own reactions, respondents operate mainly in the categories of injustice and pity towards the Ukrainian people. Also, the majority of respondents are constantly in opposition information flows, including data from foreign media and opposition bloggers, are prone to trust and manipulation, expressing the provisions of various fake stories, actively disseminated in the online space during the political crisis of 2022).

There is a strong correlation between reactions to political content and personal characteristics of respondents, who in a crisis situation choose the ‘flight’ strategy from the classical triad of ‘flight, freeze or fight’. In addition, respondents were critical of the implementation of conscription (partial military mobilization) and expressed understanding and support for Russian emigrants, whose strategy of behaviour seemed understandable and logical to them. Reactions to the image with Russian with new regions are irritated as a factor of the ‘new world’, where Russia is ‘disconnected from the global space’, which does not correlate with cosmopolitan ambitions and values. At the same time, global problems are not taken seriously and internal problems (inflation, unemployment, economic crisis, poverty, etc.) are given priority. Many of those interviewed would have followed such a life scenario, but they have encountered a number of objective obstacles including financial and family factors which they regret. In this respect, most respondents are in a state of prolonged depression and stress.

Nevertheless, despite being immersed in political information flows, symbolic images of both patriotic and oppositional orientation make them want to ignore them or reduce their importance in some other way (for example, in some cases the display of such images makes them mock). This suggests that the effectiveness of information support for current events is low for both patriotic and oppositional groups of young people.

The calmest and most homogeneous reactions are shown by the apolitical respondents, who most often show fatigue with the current political agenda. Respondents from this group tend to ignore symbolic images and also call for so-called ‘information detox’ – temporary rejection of various types of digital devices in order to rest. On the other hand, apolitical respondents show a higher degree of conformity and are not inclined to argue or be aggressive when discussing political issues, which is evident both in the polygraph test results and in verbal/non-verbal reactions during the test and the post-test focused interview. Respondents are also uninterested in political imagery; many of them speak of a ‘political detoxification’ of their views in recent months, which at this stage suggests a tendency to ‘escape from politics’ during the Ukrainian crisis rather than a total politicization of the nation.

Among all groups of respondents – online users’ interest in the Ukrainian crisis and relations between the two states is much higher than the current geopolitical tensions. Respondents more often ignore geopolitics and global relations (for example, between Russia and Western countries), which is manifested, among other things, in reactions to some pictures with the symbols of Russia and NATO. Respondents were more concerned about the consequences of geopolitics, expressed in the withdrawal of Western brands from Russia, the blocking of payment systems, inflation and other everyday problems. However, while patriotic and apolitical respondents are ready to accept the new reality, opposition respondents are eager to get out of it and dream of a return to the ‘world before February 24’. Some Western values and culture do not cause discomfort or irritation for all groups of respondents. In one way or another, these issues are not directly related to the global situation, and Western countries are not seen by most of respondents as a direct military or political enemy of Russia at this stage of the conflict.

Conclusion

The obtained data support the authors’ hypothesis. The use of cardio-oculometric detection combined with electrodermal activity registration and specially organized in-depth interviews with elements of psy-chosemantic analysis allows obtaining reliable infor- mation on affective and rational-logical features of perception of online visual content. Thus, it is shown that the complex of the described techniques allows to limit the registration of galvanic skin reactions of the respondents and post-test in-depth interviews for operative estimation of visual online content. From the received data it also follows that at desire to carry out the multidimensional analysis of reactions to a visual content of a network by all the above-described methods it is necessary to limit to sets including no more than 6-8 objects. As well as opening up prospects for new interdisciplinary lines of applied research, the results presented are highly relevant to the development of instrumental techniques for assessing the perception of modern digital communication.

Statement on ethical issues

Research involving people and/or animals is in full compliance with current national and international ethical standards.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

Author contributions

The authors read the ICMJE criteria for authorship and approved the final manuscript.