[New post] We unconsciously pay more attention to someone who has dilated pupils

BPS Research Digest posted: " By Emma Young How do you know when someone else is paying attention to you? If they're staring at you intensely, that's a pretty obvious giveaway. But there are also far subtler signals — such as the size of their pupils. As Clara Colombatto and Br" We unconsciously pay more attention to someone who has dilated pupils BPS Research Digest May 4 By Emma Young How do you know when someone else is paying attention to you? If they're staring at you intensely, that's a pretty obvious giveaway. But there are also far subtler signals — such as the size of their pupils. As Clara Colombatto and Brian Scholl at Yale University note in a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, our pupils automatically and uncontrollably dilate when we're emotionally aroused, working something out, or just attending to something. Pupil size has been used as an objective indicator of all these things in a wealth of recent studies. But if another person is directing their attention towards you, you need to know about it. It might be attention that you should reciprocate, to build a relationship, or it might signal a potential threat. So, Colombatto and Scholl wondered, "If the apprehension of pupil size is so helpful to scientists, might it be similarly helpful to us in everyday life?" Read more of this post Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Research Digest. Change your email settings at manage subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://digest.bps.org.uk Powered by WordPress.com