The Living Room

Annett, Michelle; Lakier, Matthew; Li, Franklin; Wigdor, Daniel; Grossman, Tovi; Fitzmaurice, George

doi:10.1145/2901790.2901819

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The VAPUS model asserts that ghost narratives possess an influential brand personality that parallels the strong consumer engagement with social media or the most popular commercial products or services (for related discussions, see Annett et al, 2016; Edwards, 2001). To clarify, brand personality is a concept in consumer marketing theory and practice that Aaker (1997) defined as, “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand” (p. 347).…”

Section: Sociocultural Influences and The Vapus Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Speaking to the validity of the VAPUS model, its components generally align to the independent work of Annett et al (2016) who synthesized and deconstructed the experiential elements of ghostly experiences to identify four innovative ways to enhance design and engagement in consumer displays, that is, digital effects or functionality with intensity , familiarity , tangibility , and shareability . Concomitant with this framework, occurrences are particularly important where specific haunt-like characteristics reveal a predisposition in witnesses to perceive phenomena as more unusual, such as aberrant salience (i.e., the experience of ordinary events as remarkable and meaningful, see: Irwin, 2014; Irwin et al, 2014) or ambiguity intolerance (i.e., the tendency to perceive or interpret ambiguous situations as sources of threat, see: Houran & Williams, 1998; Lange & Houran, 2000).…”

Section: Sociocultural Influences and The Vapus Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Conceptual and clinical implications of a “Haunted People Syndrome”.

Laythe¹,

Houran

Dagnall

et al. 2021

Spirituality in Clinical Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Evidence suggests that subjective and objective anomalies associated with ghostly episodes form a unidimensional Rasch scale and that these interconnected "signs or symptoms" arguably describe a syndrome model. This view predicts that symptom perception-that is, the phenomenology of these anomalous episodes-can be markedly skewed by an experient's psychological set. This is impacted, in turn, by psychosocial variables that affect attentional, perceptual, and interpretational processes. Therefore, we present an overview that discusses how (a) Belief in the Paranormal, (b) Religious Ideology, (c) Ideological Practice, (d) Social Desirability, (e) Latency, and (f) Environmental Setting ostensibly influence the contents or interpretations of accounts. These experiential details are similarly expected to reveal insights into the psychodynamics being expressed or contextualized via these narratives. Future research in this area should help to validate and clarify the proposed syndrome model, as well as explore which nuances in the phenomenology of ghostly episodes reflect idiosyncrasies of experients' psychological set versus the nature of the core phenomenon itself.

show abstract

Section: Sociocultural Influences and The Vapus Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sociocultural Influences and The Vapus Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual and clinical implications of a “Haunted People Syndrome”.

Laythe¹,

Houran

Dagnall

et al. 2021

Spirituality in Clinical Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Overall, haunted houses exist as psychological, cultural, economic, and legal realities -with a strong and engaging "brand personality" akin to popular consumer products (Annett et al, 2016;Hill et al, 2018Hill et al, , 2019Houran et al, 2020). Although witness accounts are often explained away as instances of gullibility, overactive imaginations, or outright fraud (Nickell, 2001(Nickell, , 2012Ashford, 2017), researchers have occasionally documented the presence of independent environmental or physical mechanisms in spontaneous cases (e.g., Persinger and Koren, 2001b;Vinokur, 2005Vinokur, , 2016Nickell, 2008;Colvin, 2010;Laythe and Houran, 2019).…”

Section: Possibly Morementioning

confidence: 99%

Things That Go Bump in the Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of “Haunted Houses”

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper contains a narrative overview of the past 20-years of environmental research on anomalous experiences attributed to "haunted house." This exercise served as a much-needed update to an anthology of noteworthy overviews on ghosts, haunts, and poltergeists (Houran and Lange, 2001b). We also considered whether new studies had incorporated certain recommendations made in this anthology. Our search revealed a relative paucity of studies (n = 66) on environmental factors that ostensibly stimulate haunt-type experiences. This literature was diverse and often lacked methodological consistency and adherence to the prior suggestions. However, critical consideration of the content revealed a recurring focus on six ambient variables: embedded (static) cues, lighting levels, air quality, temperature, infrasound, and electromagnetic fields. Their relation to the onset or structure of witness reports showed mostly null, though sometimes inconsistent or weak outcomes. However, such research as related to haunts is arguably in its infancy and new designs are needed to account better for environmental and architectural phenomenology. Future studies should therefore address four areas: (i) more consistent and precise measurements of discrete ambient variables; (ii) the potential role of "Gestalt influences" that involve holistic environmentperson interactions; (iii) individual differences in attentional or perceptual sensitivities of percipients to environmental variables; and (iv) the role of attitudinal and normative influences in the interpretation of environmental stimuli. Focused scrutiny on these issues should clarify the explanatory power of evolutionary-environmental models for these and related anomalous experiences.

show abstract