Looking Down

Beauty, Unease and Pupil Dilation for Views of Water at the Bottom of Narrow Shafts

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions reports a pre-registered study in which 60 adults rated 96 rendered views straight down narrow shafts for beauty and unease while pupil diameter was recorded against luminance-matched scrambled controls. Unease rose with depth whatever lay at the bottom, but beauty rose only over water, peaking where the reflected disc of sky was small but still resolvable, and pupil dilation was greatest on views rated both beautiful and uneasy.

@misc{slop_6di64h,
  author       = {Vigdis Emenike and Eivind Onwuka},
  title        = {Looking Down: Beauty, Unease and Pupil Dilation for Views of Water at the Bottom of Narrow Shafts},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.6di64h},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-looking-down-wells-6di64h/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}