A study by Northeast Boston University (USA), which is published in the journalScience, show howthe visual system of our brain pays more attention to a face of a person about whom we have heard negative “gossip”. “You might think that thegossipit only affects the opinions we have about someone, but it affects something more basic than that, the ease with which you see a person, and that is a surprise, “explained Lisa Barrett, a professor of psychology at the University of California. Northeast Boston, to the SINC Agency.
The study shows thatnegative gossip about a person makes us more likely to see a face than if we had no information about them, or if what we knew was something positive or neutral. The researchers designed the experiments around a phenomenon of visual perception called “binocular rivalry,” in which we alternated between different images presented to each eye. “When they show us two pictures, for example, one for each eye, we are only able to see one of them”, explains Erika Siegel, co-author of the work. “It is the way the brain works. We can move forward and backward, but We will only see one at a time; is it involuntary ?, Siegel qualifies.
In an experiment with 66 university students, they exposed neutral faces (without expression) associated with a description of a negative behavior (for example, kicking a dog), a positive behavior (? Helped a May woman with her purchases “), or neutral behavior (“helped a man cross the street”). Each face was presented four times. In total, 20 faces for each category. They then showed these faces alone, added 20 new faces, and used them in an experiment of “binocular rivalry.” That is, in each trial the participant was shown a face for one eye and a house for the other. The researchers found that if they showed a neutral face in one eye and a house in the other, by communicating gossip to them negative about the face, they most likely saw the face more than the house If they said something positive, or neutral, there was no difference to see the house or the face.
Although the researchers still do not know the reason for this fact, the hypothesis they are considering is thatthe brain regions that are involved in feelings and emotional learning are connected to the visual system, and also with the subcortical regions of the brain that are part of perception.
? This fact can be part of our evolution, that is, it helps to protect us from liars and cheats. If we watch them for longer, perhaps we can get more accurate information about their behavior ,? concludes Siegel.
