People react quickest to fear
Rushda:
October 22nd, 2007
New research from the US into how we recognise others’ emotions has found some remarkable things about human psychology. Apparently we are more sensitive to noticing fear than happiness as a look of horror will grab our attention many times quicker than a smile.
The study, which was conducted at Vanderbilt University in the US and published in the journal Emotion, examined volunteers, found that fear is the emotion we pick up on the quicker than any other feeling such as joy. Furthermore, what is even more interesting is that this result remained the same even when volunteers were shown pictures of faces where only the eyes were showing, which means we are very perceptive when it comes to subtle facial changes. Indeed, it has been found that the brain responds to facial expressions at the rate of less than 40 milliseconds.
The researchers believe that the results about detecting fear were as anticipated and can easily be explained by how we evolved to make instant decisions in life threatening situations. Smiles signal safety so they do not require immediate attention in the same way. As Dr David Zald, associate professor of psychology at the institution, explains:
“We believe that the brain can detect certain cues even before we are aware of them, so that we can direct our attention to potentially threatening situations in our environment.”
Now the team will be doing research on how we respond to other emotions such as anger to find out the bigger picture.