{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T06:10:06Z","timestamp":1784182206888,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784160000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Mascot design plays an important role in brand communication, yet empirical evidence on how specific visual features shape attention and preference remains limited. This study examined how mascot type, head-to-body ratio, and eye size are associated with fixation-based visual attention and self-reported preference among young adults.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The study followed a three-stage design. First, Experiments 1\u20133 used eye-tracking to examine visual-attention patterns related to mascot type, head-to-body ratio, and eye size. Second, a questionnaire-based preference rating study examined whether these attention patterns converged with self-reported liking. Third, Experiment 4 adopted a full-factorial stimulus structure, and fsQCA was used to identify configurational pathways associated with high total fixation duration.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Animal mascots, the 1:2 head-to-body ratio, and large-eye conditions showed the strongest descriptive attention and preference patterns within their respective design variables. The fsQCA results identified multiple sufficient configurations associated with high total fixation duration. A compact head-to-body ratio condition, operationalized as 1:1.5 or 1:2, appeared as a shared core condition across the sufficient pathways, although it did not meet the threshold for a necessary condition.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings support a configurational understanding of mascot design, suggesting that visual attention and preference are shaped by both individual design features and their combinations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1748647","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T05:37:28Z","timestamp":1784180248000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Visual attention and subjective preference in mascot design: evidence from eye-tracking, ratings, and fsQCA"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Chen","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Furnishings and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University","place":["Nanjing, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuxi","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Furnishings and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University","place":["Nanjing, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijproman.2020.06.005","article-title":"Configurations of project management practices to enhance the performance of open innovation R&D projects","volume":"39","author":"Barbosa","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. 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