ChillsDB: A Gold Standard for Aesthetic Chills Stimuli

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Media Studies

Background:

• Aesthetic chills, also known as goosebumps or psychogenic shivers, are a fascinating psychophysiological response to art and media.
• Understanding the stimuli that elicit these responses is crucial for fields like psychology and neuroscience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce ChillsDB, the first validated database of audiovisual stimuli known to evoke aesthetic chills in a US population.
• To provide researchers with a comprehensive resource for studying the phenomenon of aesthetic chills.

Main Methods:

• A novel, bottom-up, and ecologically valid method was employed, searching social media platforms (YouTube, Reddit) for user comments mentioning somatic markers of chills.
• 204 videos across music, film, and speech categories were identified as potential chills stimuli.
• The top 50 videos were tested on over 600 participants, leading to the validation of a gold standard set of 10 stimuli with a high probability of eliciting chills.

Main Results:

• ChillsDB successfully cataloged 204 audiovisual stimuli eliciting aesthetic chills.
• A validated gold standard of 10 stimuli was identified, demonstrating a 0.9 probability of generating chills.
• The database provides a robust foundation for future research into the mechanisms and triggers of aesthetic chills.

Conclusions:

• ChillsDB represents a significant advancement in the study of aesthetic chills, offering a validated and accessible resource.
• The employed methodology successfully captured real-world chills-eliciting stimuli.
• All ChillsDB tools and data are publicly available on GitHub, encouraging collaborative research and further analysis.