People implicitly think of 'line of sight' as a beam of physical properties.
Humans are gaze-sensitive creatures that not only can communicate through eye contact, but can also feel 'seen by someone' at the moment of their daily lives. Recent research has shown that 'people implicitly think of their line of sight as a beam of physical properties,' explains scientific media Scientific American. ..
When Our Gaze Is a Physical Force --Scientific American
Looking at someone and making eye contact is one of communication, and you can make social adjustments without relying on words or gestures. On the other hand, Scientific American points out that gaze has not only been seen as a means of communication, and people have long tended to believe that gaze has physical power.
For example,
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Scientific American describes several studies investigating the worldwide belief that 'the line of sight is radiating something.' In the 2019 study , a display displaying 'an image of a cylindrical tube resembling a paper towel' was placed on the table on which the subject sat, and a photograph showing the profile of a person was placed on the edge of the table. I installed it in the facing position. The display is connected to the keyboard, and when you press a specific key, the tube is tilted.
The following image shows the state of the experiment. When you press the key, the tube tilts towards the profile image.
The research team then gave the subject the task of 'pressing the key to tilt the tube until it reached a critical point where the tube could not withstand the tilt and collapsed.' At this time, in some trials, an experiment was conducted with 'a profile image blindfolded', and the effect of the profile line of sight on the subject's psychology was investigated.
As a result of the experiment, it was found that the degree of inclination that the subject feels 'falling down' changes depending on whether or not the profile is blindfolded. When the profile was looking at the tube, the inclination was larger than when the profile was blindfolded. In other words, the research team explains that there is an implicit perception that the profile's line of sight radiates some energy and helps prevent the tube from tipping over.
In a similar experimental environment, the research team said, 'When the profile is facing in a different direction from the tube' and 'When the subject is told that'this profile is looking at the wall behind the tube, not the tube'.' We also conducted an experiment. As a result, it was confirmed that when the subject recognized that the profile was looking at the tube, the degree of inclination of the tube was increased.
All of the subjects who participated in the series of experiments were those who answered in a preliminary questionnaire survey that they did not believe that 'the line of sight has power'. Nevertheless, the research team thought that there was an 'implicit cognitive shortcut to process the line of sight quickly' in terms of intuitively recognizing some force based on the line of sight.
Therefore, in the 2020 study , an experiment using fMRI was conducted to detect brain activity by measuring local oxygen consumption. The research team showed the subject 'an image of a profile looking at a tree' and measured the subject's brain activity by fMRI.
Then, the subject who saw the profile image staring at the tree was active in 'the area of the brain involved in the processing of motion perception that perceives the movement of an object' and 'the area involved in understanding the thoughts and intentions of others'. Did. However, when he blindfolded his profile, he stopped working in these areas. This result suggests that the human brain treats the 'line of sight' as a state in which something is moving, thereby accelerating communication by line of sight such as eye contact. Regarding the series of results, Scientific American said, 'The illusion of human beings finding physical force in their line of sight is amazing.'
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