Fear gets seen faster - October 15, 2007
Our brains respond faster to fear than to smiles, according to researchers in the United States. David Zald and colleagues found if they slowed down facial recognition, there was a noticeable difference in the time it took to perceive happy faces and the time it took to perceive scared faces. This probably all evolved as a ‘threat radar’ millions of years ago (see for example the Times).
“We think what is happening with fear is that this is a critical threat signal for us. Fear tells you something is wrong and you need to pay attention,” said Zald, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee (Reuters).
Zald and co used a neat trick of perception to slow down recognition enough to detect the differences. Study subjects looked at faces with one eye while the other eye was presented with a rapidly changing pattern. The brain focuses on working out what is going on with the pattern, slowing the recognition of the face (and its temperament). The paper should appear in the journal Emotion shortly.
Spoiling the party: Bahador Bahrami, a neuroscience researcher at University College London, said the discovery was not unexpected. “It’s quite well accepted that fearful faces have a special significance. And other imaging studies have shown the brain responds more strongly to fear, so this is consistent with that finding,” he told the BBC.
According to his website Zald is one of only a handful of musicians who have mastered a strange 10-string instrument played by tapping the strings to the frets. Have a listen.
Image: Getty
