Don't Believe Everything You See

Contrary to the folksy maxim that seeing is believing, as well as to our own experience that what we detect through vision is reality, new brain research indicates that it is the reverse that may be the case: what we perceive, particularly in the arena of picking up the emotional cues written on the faces of others, may be influenced by the thoughts that are already going on in our heads.

Jamin Halberstadt, from the University of Otago in New Zealand and co-author of a study arising from international collaboration with researchers in the U.S. and France, offers to ScienceDaily a tongue-in-cheek example of how their findings might play out in our lives:

"[T]wo people can have different recollections about the same emotional episode, yet both be correct about what they 'saw.' So when my wife remembers my smirk as cynicism, she is right: her explanation of the expression at the time biased her perception of it. But it is also true that, had she explained my expression as empathy, I wouldn't be sleeping on the couch."

The study involved showing test subjects first a series of still images of ambiguously expressive faces, with direction to interpret them as either happy or angry. The subjects were subsequently shown video clips of slowly changing facial expression from blank to happy or to angry. Lastly, the subjects were asked to locate the original expression from within the video images. Results indicated that the subjects were more likely to select images expressing more anger or happiness than the original actually did.

Far from just being a neat party trick, the study points a pathway for further inquiry that could bear fruit for those afflicted with social anxiety or brain trauma for whom navigating social interactions is difficult.

Photo courtesy of Ddeunert, via Wikimedia Commons