Having been human for some time now, there's lots of quirks of human behavior that have been explained, and the world is a less confusing place as a result.
Yet there are some that remain. Such as - when you're driving in traffic and look at a person in another car, but in such a way that there's no way they could see you looking at them, and yet they somehow know, and stare right back at you. Or when you get caught looking at someone and try to avert your eyes, but you can tell you got caught. Or the reverse, just as common. How on earth do we do this? ESP? That's been my only explanation, which is to say, I've got no explanation. Until now:
Team succeeds in determining the exact moment when the brain detects another person's gaze direction
Jul 2024, phys.org
They succeeded in determining with unprecedented precision the exact moment at which the direction of gaze is detected using an electroencephalogram (EEG) and machine learning.The brain first perceives the more global visual cues, i.e. the orientation of the head, before focusing on the more local information. Hierarchical organization then allows for integration of eye region and head orientation information.
(And this is why "side eye" is a creepy, uncanny valley thing; it's a mismatch of head direction and eye direction.)
via University of Geneva: Domilė Tautvydaitė et al, The Timing of Gaze Direction Perception: ERP Decoding and Task Modulation, NeuroImage (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120659
Image credit: AI Art - Drunk People 2 - 2024
Study links social and non-social synchrony to romantic attractiveness
Jul 2024, phys.org
Some people are super synchronizers, and super synchronizers are consistently rated as more attractive.The ability to synchronize stems from fundamental sensorimotor abilities and that this adaptability might be perceived as beneficial in romantic contexts. ("Romantic Contexts")Synchronized physiological states between two people can facilitate the regulation of bodily systems, ultimately enabling more fulfilling interactions between them.The researchers first carried out an initial online experiment involving 144 participants. These participants were asked to watch short videos in which a male and a female actor interacted with each other, exhibiting either a low or high physiological and behavioral synchrony.After watching this video, they were asked to rate the attractiveness of the male and female actors. The researchers found that greater synchrony between the actors in the videos increased the attractiveness ratings provided by the study participants.In a follow up experiment, some participants were asked to interact with potential partners in a speed dating experiment, and complete a tapping task designed to measure their synchronization, while using a wearable device called the Empatica E4 wristband which measured the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, the secretion of sweat and changes in electrodermal activity.
via Hebrew University: M. Cohen et al, Social and nonsocial synchrony are interrelated and romantically attractive, Communications Psychology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00109-1
The Big 5 is a Lie! And now we're all rethinking the effectiveness of surveillance advertising; it's quite possible that someone is lying to us.
Team uncovers the complex social life of rats, with potential implications for human psychiatry
Oct 2024, phys.org
I'm only here for this:
Another unexpected result was that there was relatively little correlation between the "personality" traits defined in standard personality and social tests (commonly used in drug or behavioral research) and the actual behavior observed within the real groups.
via Department of Biological Physics and Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University: Máté Nagy et al, Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-72437-5
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