Post Date December, 03 2023
Stay focused on the differences between the face and body
A study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that when people look at someone else's face, they tend to express romantic love; If the gaze stays on the other person's body, it mostly conveys sexual desires.
The lead author of this study, Stephanie? Stephanie Cacioppo stated that these glances conveying special meanings only last for less than half a second.
Cassiop believes, "Although we previously knew very little about the scientific principles of love at first sight or falling in love, these reaction patterns provide us with first-hand information. It tells us that when strangers come into contact, some spontaneous attention processes - such as eye gaze - make a difference between feeling love and sexual desire
Cassiop and her colleagues pointed out in a review published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2012 that the sensation of love and the regions of the human brain activated by sexual desire are different. And this new study tests whether researchers can distinguish whether subjects are feeling love or sexual desire based on collected eye tracking data.
The study includes two tests. In the first experiment, the researchers first showed 120 black and white photos to 16 heterosexuality students at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Each photo shows a young heterosexuality couple interacting with each other. In the second part of the experiment, these students were required to view 40 attractive photos of the opposite sex - during the testing process, the researchers did not use any nude or pornographic images.
In the second experiment, male and female participants will see examples of photos of the opposite sex.
In both tests, participants were required to quickly and accurately report whether they felt love or sexual desire after seeing the photos. Researchers point out that scans related to love and sexual desire occupy almost the same amount of time, highlighting the brain's ability to quickly process these two emotions. However, analysis of eye tracking data shows that those who primarily focus on the person's face tend to report feeling romantic love. When seeing pictures that stimulate sexual desire, the subjects' gaze mainly lingers on the human body. This result did not differ between male and female participants.
