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U of M decodes emotions of Olympic medalists
After decoding more than 400 photos of athletes on the Olympics medal stand, facial expression software helped uncover an interesting upset.
MINNEAPOLIS — Athletes from around the world will soon compete for gold in the summer Olympics in Paris, but for those who come up just short, bronze might bring more happiness than silver.
A research team at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management used facial expression software to analyze more than 400 photos of Olympic athletes on the medal podium.
“The software uses machine learning or artificial intelligence,” said William Hedgcock, an associate professor of marketing at the Carlson School of Management. “It decodes facial expressions and measures the ’emotional intensity’ of different expressions, including neutral happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and contempt.
These are the expressions we can actually encode with a certain amount of accuracy. There are many other emotions but we can’t code them by looking at your expressions.”
After comparing the expressions of gold, silver and bronze medalists between 2000 and 2016, and ranking the happiness associated with each medal winner, the study revealed an interesting upset.
“It’s no surprise that the gold medalist tends to have the happiest expressions,” said Hedgcock. “What is surprising is that bronze is more happy than silver. If you’re silver (medalist), it’s salient to think that I could have been first. If you’re bronze, you’re sitting here going, I could be that person sitting on, not on the medal stand. So I’m feeling pretty good.”
A viral photo of Team USA gymnast McKayla Maroney looking “not impressed” by her silver medal in the vault during the 2016 Olympics stands out as an example of that second place letdown.
“The software shows anger and contempt are the highest expressions from Maroney,” he said. “Reactions like this are clear, but the vast majority of comparisons involved smiles.”
Still, Hedgcock points out that Maroney was disappointed because she was the clear gold medal favorite that year. He says his team did analyze how expressions corresponded to medal expectations, but he says the results tied to silver and bronze were consistent throughout.
“You know, within any one image, a lot of things could be happening (emotionally), but over 400 images we have a much better picture of these sort of counterfactuals and what likely is driving this behavior,” he said.
In addition to providing insight into the psychology of elite athletes, the technology used in the study has become a critical tool for marketing research.
Hedgcock: “We use similar facial expression technology to look at how people respond to advertisements and movie trailers.”
Kent Erdahl: “What have you learned from photos that maybe you wouldn’t have learned from polling or surveys?”
Hedgcock: “I can see how you’re reacting without having to ask you. If I ask you, it affects how you process in the future. I like to go to comedy clubs and if you ask me after every joke, how funny was that it affects my subsequent reaction to the next joke.”
In addition to decoding photos, the software can also be used to track facial expressions in real time via a webcam.
“That can give us an idea of how you’re responding over time and there’s a lot of value in that,” Hedgcock said. “We often use surveys at the end of an ad and that’s great to understand how you process the ad at the end, but we may not accurately remember what we were doing five or 10 seconds into the commercial.”
The technology can also serve as a sort of truth test, even for athletes.
“Past work had surveyed people to find out why they had certain expressions, but we know that sometimes people don’t want to admit things,” Hedgcock said. “Maybe you don’t wanna say, well, I was less happy about silver because it doesn’t sound good.”
MINNEAPOLIS — How much do you know about your grandma’s upbringing?
“The Stories From My Grandmother’s Hands” is a book that aims to show young Black children how their grandmas lived through beautiful illustrations and descriptions.
KARE 11 News at Noon shared more on Thursday about the impact that this book will have.
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
Jeremy Jourdain was 17 when he was last seen on Halloween 2016.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — The search for Jeremy Jourdain, who was last seen on Halloween in 2016, continues now eight years later.
Jourdain was last seen at a family member’s house in Bemidji, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. He left the residence near the 500 block of Wood Avenue after midnight and while people followed him, no one was able to find him.
Jourdain was 17 at the time.
Officials said he was wearing a blue and grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans when last seen. He is Native American and is described as 6 foot 5 and 175 pounds.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, you can contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111. Tips can also be sent to 1-833-560-2065, or you can email ojs_mmu@bia.gov.
