Your left side is your best side, scientists find
April 22, 2012
Courtesy of Springer Science & Business Media
and World Science staff
Your best side may be your left cheek, according to a new study.
The research, by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schirillo from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, finds that images of the left side of the face are perceived and rated as more pleasant than pictures of the right side. This may be because we present emotion more intensely on the left side of our face, say Blackburn and Schirillo, who publish their results in the journal Experimental Brain Research.
Past studies suggest that the left side of the face is more intense and active during emotional expression—which may explain why Western artists’ portraits predominantly present subjects’ left profile, Blackburn and Schirillo said.
“Our results suggest that posers’ left cheeks tend to exhibit a greater intensity of emotion, which observers find more aesthetically pleasing,” they wrote. “Our findings provide support for a number of concepts – the notions of lateralized emotion and right hemispheric [right half of the brain] dominance with the right side of the brain controlling the left side of the face during emotional expression.”
Participants were asked to rate the pleasantness of both sides of male and female faces in black-and-white photos. The researchers presented both original photos and mirror-reversed images, so that an original right-cheek image looked like a left-cheek image and vice versa. The researchers found a strong preference for left-sided portraits, regardless of whether the pictures were originally taken of the left side, or mirror-reversed. The left side of the face was rated as more aesthetically pleasing for both male and female posers.
These preferences were also confirmed by measurements of pupil size, a reliable unconscious measurement of interest, the investigators found. Pupils dilate in response to more interesting or pleasant stimuli, and constrict when looking at unpleasant images, they noted.
April 22, 2012
Courtesy of Springer Science & Business Media
and World Science staff
Your best side may be your left cheek, according to a new study.
The research, by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schirillo from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, finds that images of the left side of the face are perceived and rated as more pleasant than pictures of the right side. This may be because we present emotion more intensely on the left side of our face, say Blackburn and Schirillo, who publish their results in the journal Experimental Brain Research.
Past studies suggest that the left side of the face is more intense and active during emotional expression—which may explain why Western artists’ portraits predominantly present subjects’ left profile, Blackburn and Schirillo said.
“Our results suggest that posers’ left cheeks tend to exhibit a greater intensity of emotion, which observers find more aesthetically pleasing,” they wrote. “Our findings provide support for a number of concepts – the notions of lateralized emotion and right hemispheric [right half of the brain] dominance with the right side of the brain controlling the left side of the face during emotional expression.”
Participants were asked to rate the pleasantness of both sides of male and female faces in black-and-white photos. The researchers presented both original photos and mirror-reversed images, so that an original right-cheek image looked like a left-cheek image and vice versa. The researchers found a strong preference for left-sided portraits, regardless of whether the pictures were originally taken of the left side, or mirror-reversed. The left side of the face was rated as more aesthetically pleasing for both male and female posers.
These preferences were also confirmed by measurements of pupil size, a reliable unconscious measurement of interest, the investigators found. Pupils dilate in response to more interesting or pleasant stimuli, and constrict when looking at unpleasant images, they noted.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment