[Science of ASMR – researcher interviews]

Undergraduate student completes research dissertation about ASMR and mood

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Georgina Susan Pamela Terzza has recently completed her  BSc in Psychology at the University of Lincoln, England.  She is now pursuing her MSc in Clinical Psychology at the Royal Holloway University of London, England.

For her Bachelor’s Dissertation,  supervised by Dr. Andy Benn, she completed a research project titled, “The effects and benefits of ASMR stimuli on mood.”

For her project, 37 participants (with and without experience watching ASMR videos) watched ASMR videos and completed a survey about their mood.   She found that ASMR videos had a positive effect on mood, and this was independent of prior experience with ASMR videos.

In my interview with Georgina, she provides helpful explanations of her inspiration, goals, methods, findings, interesting moments, and very useful tips for other students researching ASMR.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and a link so you can learn more about her.

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Undergraduate student completes research study on ASMR and student studying

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityPa Chee Yang is an undergraduate student  majoring in Applied Social Science with a concentration in Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

She decided to investigate some associations between ASMR and student studying for his Applied Social Science Capstone research project.  Her advisor was Dr Zach Raff and her Capstone project was titled, “How ASMR affects student study.”

Pa Chee recruited 98 local students for her study and inquired about ASMR experiences, GPA, introversion, caffeine use, sleep difficulties, stress levels, and music habits.

In my interview with Pa Chee she explains her inspiration, goals, methods, and the results of her study.   She also provides tips for other students researching ASMR.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and links to her complete Capstone project, as well as, a presentation file summarizing her project.

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Graduate student completes research study about the role of ASMR in the service industry

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian ResponseI posted a prior article titled, “Participate in a research study about the role of ASMR in the service industry.”

Good news, the research study is completed and some results are now available.

The researcher was Vladimir Fedoseev, a graduate student pursuing his MBA at the Varna University of Management in Varna, Bulgaria (a partner university of Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales).

His dissertation focused on the involvement of ASMR in the service industry and is titled, “Effect of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) on Service User Experience”

He investigated how ASMR triggers, like soft speech, gentle sounds, careful hand movements, light touch, personal attention, and kind personalities, might effect experiences with hairdressers, doctors, hotel clerks, and others in the service industry.

In this second interview with Vladimir he reviews the details of his methods and shares some results of his research project.

One curious observation I noticed in his results is that gentle sounds, soft speech, and personal attention were the top triggers perceived by participants to cause ASMR in services, but the services with increasing reliance of light touch (like a hairdresser) showed increasing likelihood of stimulating ASMR.  This could imply that light touch is a stronger contributor in service-mediated ASMR than the participants realized.

Below are my questions in bold, his replies in italics, and links to learn more about his research project.

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Undergraduate student investigates psychoacoustics of ASMR trigger sounds

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAnders Köhler recently graduated from the University of Skövde in Sweden with a Degree of Bachelor of Arts and majored in Media Arts, Aesthetics, and Narration (Game Development – Sound).

His examination project investigated the psychoacoustic properties of ASMR sounds and was titled, “A study of scratching sounds within ASMR in a neutral sound environment.”

Anders’ goal was to try to find  patterns and properties in ASMR trigger sounds.  This is a terrific quest.  What is special about crinkling, tapping, whispering, and scratching sounds that make them so blissful and delightful to ASMR enthusiasts?

He focused his project on scratching sounds and utilized state-of-the-art tools and methods to dissect the sound profiles.

In my interview with Anders he explains his goals, research design, and shares a table of his data with a full explanation of what he discovered in his project.

Below are my questions in bold, his replies in italics, and links to his study, a video summary, and his Facebook page.

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Graduate student completes research study about the body map of ASMR sensations

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityJack Stevenson-Smith completed his Masters degree 2 years ago in the School of Psychology at the The University of Liverpool, UK.

He focused his Master’s research dissertation on ASMR and it was titled, “Bodily maps of novel somatosensation: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)”

In my interview with Jack he shares the inspiration for his research, his aims, hypotheses, and methods, the challenges he encountered, some great tips for other ASMR researchers, and his special moment with Dmitri, the ASMR artist known as massageASMR.

Below are my questions in bold and his replies in italics.

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Participate in a research study about the role of ASMR in the service industry

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian ResponseVladimir Fedoseev is a graduate student pursuing his MBA at the Varna University of Management in Varna, Bulgaria (a partner university of Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales).

His dissertation is investigating the involvement of ASMR in the service industry and is titled, “Effect of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) on Service User Experience”

This is an interesting topic.  How do the caring dispositions, light touches, hand movements, and personal attention from  hairdressers, servers, and hotel staff affect our experience (and perhaps the tips)?  Does being able to experience ASMR influence these interactions?

You can take his survey (link below) to share your experiences and perspectives.

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Undergraduate student shares completed dissertation on ASMR, aesthetics, sensory perception, and sensory phenomena

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAndrew Smith is an undergraduate student at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at The University of Dundee, Scotland.

He focused his final year dissertation project on ASMR to fulfill the requirements for his Bachelor of Design degree (with Honors).

Andrew’s completed dissertation was 47 pages (~10,000 words), was titled, “An investigation into the interconnected nature of aesthetics, sensory perception and sensory phenomena” and weaved together the following topics:

  • ASMR
  • The Golden Rectangle (a shape linked to art, design, and architecture)
  • Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (a therapy for trauma patients)
  • Brain Wave States, Hypnosis, & REM, Sleep
  • Brain Default Mode Network & Synaesthesia
  • Interpersonal bonding
  • Senses, Sensory Processing Disorder, & Autism

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PhD student researching ASMR through the experiences of ASMR video viewers

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityHelle Breth Klausen is pursuing her Ph.D. from the Department of Media and Journalism studies at Aarhus University in Denmark.

For her PhD dissertation she will be characterizing ASMR through the experiences of ASMR video viewers.

In my interview with Helle she shares why she decided to study ASMR, her primary hypothesis and methods, preliminary results she acquired with her Master’s dissertation, and her plans to share the results from this project.

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College student creates mesmerizing animations for research project about synthetic ASMR triggers

/ Dr. Richard / 4 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityMarcus Nystrand is an undergraduate student in the Visual Communications program at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden.

For his graduation project he decided to create videos with synthetic ASMR triggers and survey if they are able to stimulate ASMR in viewers.

What are “synthetic ASMR triggers?”  Marcus created computer-generated animations that have some properties of ASMR triggers (e.g., movements, sounds) but without the presence of human forms (e.g., hands) or human objects (e.g., brushes).

In short, his project is asking, “Can non-human motions, items, and sounds trigger ASMR?”

His animations are extremely high quality,  very imaginative, and deeply mesmerizing.  Will they trigger your ASMR?

Read on to learn a bit more about his project, then click the link to view his amazing videos and answer his short survey questions.

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