Friday, February 24, 2006
See Another’s True Feeling
Your brain’s right hemisphere can read emotions on the upper half of people’s faces better than the left can, according to a study by Calin Prodan, Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma.
Past research suggests that one’s upper face displays inborn emotions, while the lower face exhibits learned emotions. “You can always put a smile on your face, says lead researcher Prodan, but the eyebrows, forehead and eye creases reveal true feelings.
In his study, Prodan presented drawings of faces displaying conflicting emotions on their upper and lower halves so that the images registered in only the left orright visual fields of the study’s participants. Initially, the subjects only recognized emotions on the lower face. ‘We tend to focus on the lower half of the face since eye-to-eye contact is rather aggressive,” he said.
But when subjects focused on the upper half of the face, they were almost twice as many accurate readings of emotions.
Past research suggests that one’s upper face displays inborn emotions, while the lower face exhibits learned emotions. “You can always put a smile on your face, says lead researcher Prodan, but the eyebrows, forehead and eye creases reveal true feelings.
In his study, Prodan presented drawings of faces displaying conflicting emotions on their upper and lower halves so that the images registered in only the left orright visual fields of the study’s participants. Initially, the subjects only recognized emotions on the lower face. ‘We tend to focus on the lower half of the face since eye-to-eye contact is rather aggressive,” he said.
But when subjects focused on the upper half of the face, they were almost twice as many accurate readings of emotions.
