Our non-profit research institute is conducting a two-day study on aesthetic chills-- when you get goosebumps or shivers down your spine in response to something positive or meaningful. We currently are only recruiting male participants.

This is a 2-day study (taking place within 10-14 days of each other).

The first session will take approximately 1 hour. The second session (scheduled between 10-14 days after your first visit) will take approximately 3 hours.

You will be compensated $30 per hour for your participation in this research study, with a total around $120. You are permitted to withdraw from the study at any time and will be compensated for your time (pro-rated to 15-minute intervals) prior to voluntary exclusion. Additionally, all parking in our building will be validated.

If you volunteer to participate in this study, during your first on-site visit, you will complete a length behavioral questionnaire, followed by money-sharing game.

During the second visit, we will first ask you to complete a series of questionnaires that will profile your mood state. You will then be outfitted with a 64-electrode EEG cap to measure brainwaves and a series of peripherals to measure various biometrics: Electromyography, Bio-Impedance-Based Respiration Rate, Heart Rate Variability, Oxygen Saturation, and Galvanic Skin Response. All of these measures are passively recorded by making contact with various body parts and do not require any bodily insertions nor bodily samples.You will then listen to a series of short songs while wearing sensors that measure your brain waves, heart rate, breathing, and muscle movements. We will also ask you to report when you experience chills during the song. After listening, you will fill out more questionnaires about your reactions and play a money-sharing game.

More information:

With funding from the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation and Joy Ventures, and the Mordechai Walder Charitable Fund, The Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies will be conducting a series of basic research studies aimed at 1) building a gradient of aesthethic chills and 2) evaluate the potential of chills stimuli as psychoplasthogens (as evidenced by signature of brain criticality) and empatheogens.

Extending on past results from online studies at the institute, this project will further validate chills in selected stimuli from within experience (via state-report), physiology (via peripheral measures), neural signatures (entropy measures via sparse EEG), psychological shifts (via self-reported awe, ego-dissolution and non-ordinary experience) and behavioral outcomes (prosocial behavior, moral decision-making, dispositional empathy).

This study will investigate what causes chills, what they mean for emotions and social behavior, and how technologies could be designed to boost positive reactions. We are interested in understanding a feeling called "chills" - when you get goosebumps or shivers down your spine in response to something positive or meaningful.

Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies jobs

Research Participant