On the difference between visual discomfort and unpleasantness

Certain types of natural and artificial images elicit negative emotional responses such as discomfort or unpleasantness. These two reactions may appear to represent distinct emotions, but have been confounded in past literature. The present study directly compared visual discomfort and unpleasantness using a common set of static and dynamic stimuli, including natural textures and artificial patterns. The results showed that discomfort and unpleasantness are triggered by clearly different stimulus properties. Visual discomfort was specifically elicited by anisotropic patterns with high contrast and flicker, whereas visual unpleasantness was strongly associated with isotropic patterns and unstructured motion. These results suggest that visual discomfort and unpleasantness are qualitatively distinct emotional responses, emphasizing the significance of addressing them as separate concepts in the study of image-induced emotion.