Abstract
The ability to experience aesthetics plays a fundamental role in human social interactions,
as well as the capacity to feel empathy. Some studies have shown that
beauty perception shares part of the neural network underlying emotional and
empathic abilities, which are also known to affect sleep quality and duration. In this
study, we evaluated for the first time the effects of sleep on the relation between
aesthetic perception and empathic abilities in healthy subjects using a mediation
analysis approach. One-hundred and twenty-six subjects participated in this study.
One-hundred and one subjects slept at home (Sleep Group). The remaining 25 subjects
were tested as controls after 1 night of sleep deprivation to assess the effects
of lack of sleep on aesthetic perception and empathy (Sleep-Deprived Group). All
participants underwent one testing session in which they performed a battery of
empathy tests and an aesthetic perception task (Golden Beauty). The results showed
that sleep duration mediates the relationship between empathy and aesthetic perception
in the sleep group. The mediation effect of sleep was more evident on the
emotional empathy measures. Conversely, in the sleep deprivation group the lack of
correlations among empathy, aesthetic perception and sleep variables did not allow
to perform the mediation analysis. These results suggest that adequate sleep duration
may play a significant role in improving cognitive and emotional empathic abilities
as well as the capability to give accurate aesthetic judgements.
Lingua originale | English |
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pagine (da-a) | 1-14 |
Numero di pagine | 14 |
Rivista | Journal of Sleep Research |
Volume | 2018 |
DOI | |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2018 |
Keywords
- beauty perception
- emotional empathy
- sleep deprivation
- sleep duration
- sleep quality
- social interaction