Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky
Research Interests:
- Aesthetic emotions
- Physiological correlates of emotional processes
- Science Communication
- Facial research
- Neural correlates of self representation
- Attention regulation and consciousness
Current Research Projects:
Evolutionary Aesthetics
In this project, we examine—both theoretically and experimentally—how long-standing evolutionary principles have shaped our aesthetic perception, social interactions, engagement with the arts, appreciation of nature, and experience of our everyday environment today.
Empirical Aesthetics as a Discipline
Empirical Aesthetics is a relatively new field within the cognitive sciences.
Emotional Goosebumps
Emotional goosebumps, or piloerection, are a well-known response to moments of being deeply moved, yet their connection to other emotions remains largely unexplored.
Here is the movie about the study
Vita
Academic Education
| 11/2017 | PhD in Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany ("Physiological correlates and neural circuitry of Being Moved") |
| 11/2010 | Diploma in Psychology |
| 2009–2010 | Diploma thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany ("Orienting response to emotional environmental sounds") |
| 2005–2010 | Studies of Psychology, Classics and Musicology, Philipps Universität, Marburg, Germany |
Professional Experience | |
| Since 2023 | Research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Since 2014 | Trainer for rhetoric, presentation techniques and scientific communication |
| 2022 | Research residence at Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo, Norway |
| 2013–2022 | Research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Department of Language and Literature, Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| 2011–2013 | Research fellow at the Cluster of Excellence „Languages of Emotion“, Freie Universität Berlin |
| 2010 | Research internship as research trainee at the McGill University, Montréal/School of Communication Sciences & Disorders (Neuroprogmatics and Emotion Lab, Marc Pell, PhD) |
| 2008 | Internship at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Montréal |
Publications
Articles (in peer-reviewed journals)
Wassiliwizky, E., Wontorra, P. & Ullén, F. (2023) How being perceived to be an artist boosts feelings of attraction in others. Scientific Reports 13, 18747. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45952-0
Wassiliwizky, E. (2023). Book review: The Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics by Martin Skov and Marcos Nadal. Perception, 1–2. doi.org/10.1177/03010066231196840
Wassiliwizky, E., & Menninghaus, W. (2021). Why and How Should Cognitive Science Care about Aesthetics? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(6), 437–449. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.03.008
Menninghaus, W., Schindler, I., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Hanich, J., Jacobsen, T., et al. (2020). Aesthetic Emotions Are a Key Factor in Aesthetic Evaluation: Reply to Skov and Nadal (2020).Psychological Review, 127(4), 650–654. doi:10.1037/rev0000213.
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Schindler, I., Hanich, J., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S. (2019). What are aesthetic emotions? Psychological Review, 126(2), 171–195. doi:10.1037/rev0000135
Wassiliwizky, E. (2018). At the root of the paradox: Comment on “An integrative review of the enjoyment of sadness associated with music” by Tuomas Eerola et al. Physics of Life Reviews, 25, 136–138. doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2017.12.008
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S. (2017). Authors’ Response: Negative emotions in art reception: Refining theoretical assumptions and adding variables to the Distancing-Embracing model. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, 44–51, Article e380. doi: doi:10.1017/S0140525X17001947
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S. (2017). The Distancing-embracing model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, Article e347. doi:10.1017/S0140525X17000309
Wassiliwizky, E., Koelsch, S., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W. (2017). The emotional power of poetry: Neural circuitry, psychophysiology and compositional principles. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(8), 1229–1240. doi:10.1093/scan/nsx069
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Knoop, C. A. (2017). The emotional and aesthetic powers of parallelistic diction. Poetics, 63, 47–59. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2016.12.001
Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., Heinrich, J., Schneiderbauer, M., & Menninghaus, W. (2017). Tears falling on goosebumps: Co-occurrence of emotional lacrimation and emotional piloerection indicates a psychophysiological climax in emotional arousal. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 41. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00041
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Kuehnast, M., & Jacobsen, T. (2015). Towards a psychological construct of Being Moved. Plos One,10(6), Article e0128451. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128451
Wassiliwizky, E., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W. (2015). Art-elicited chills indicate states of being moved. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(4), 405–416. doi:10.1037/aca0000023
Kuehnast, M., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W. (2014). Being Moved: Linguistic representation and conceptual structure. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 1242. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01242 PDF
Rigoulot, S., Wassiliwizky, E., & Pell, M. D. (2013). Feeling backwards? How temporal order in speech affects the time course of vocal emotion recognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, Article 367. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00367
Monographs
Wassiliwizky, E. (2017). Physiological correlates and neural circuitry of Being Moved (Dissertation). Retrieved from https://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/diss/receive/FUDISS_thesis_000000105818
Wassiliwizky, E. (2010). Relativer Einfluss affektiver Stimuluseigenschaften und der Vertrautheit auf die Aufmerksamkeitsorientierung: Ereigniskorrelierte Potenziale auf aufgabenirrelevante Umweltgeräusche (Diplomarbeit). Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, Leipzig.
Book Chapter
Wassiliwizky, E., & Menninghaus, W. (2022). The Power of Poetry. In A. Chatterjee, & E. R. Cardillo (Eds.), Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics into Focus (pp. 182-187). New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0036.
Awards and Grants
| 2019 | Member of the Young Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz |
| 2019 | Visiting Scholarschip at the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo |
| 2012–2014 | Graduate-Scholarship of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation |
| 2006–2010 | Scholarship for gifted students of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation |
| 2003 | Award of the city of Trier for best achievements in a Contest for Ancient Languages "Certamen-Rheno-Palatinum |