APS
2026 APS Annual Convention · 2026
Seeing the Crowd without Following It: The Influence of Ensemble Emotion on Decision Making
- Eliz Shimshek
University of Toronto - Marco Sama
University of Toronto Scarborough - Jonathan Cant
University of Toronto, Scarborough
Abstract
We examined whether affective ensemble perception biases approach-avoidance decisions in a movie-viewing task. Across several experiments, choices were driven by affective content in movie images, not facial ensembles (crowds). These results have important implications for models of ensemble encoding and the influence that summary statistics have on everyday decision making.
