How we will feel if we can understand if it’s real love or
lust at first sight. It will be awesome.
Wanna know if that special person is in love with you? Play
close attention to their gaze.
Researchers at the University
of Chicago in the US asked male and female volunteers from the University of Geneva
in Switzerland
to see a series of pictures of couples interacting, and say if they thought the
couple was romantically involved. Then, they showed them black-and-white images
of attractive individuals of the opposite sex who were looking directly at the
camera. Each time they saw one of these photographs, they had to tell as
quickly as possible whether they felt romantic love or sexual desire for the
person.
Because the participants responded quite quickly, and almost
with no hesitation, the researchers believe the human brain can differentiate
between the two feelings rapidly. How did the researchers know the volunteers
weren’t lying?
As part of the study, they tracked the eye movements of
every participant and discovered that when they reported sexual desire, their
eyes tended to move from the face to the rest of the body. If they reported
romantic love, their gaze was fixed on the face.
“Although little is currently known about the science of
love at first sight or how people fall in love, these patterns of response
provide the first clues regarding how automatically attentional processes, such
as eye gaze, may differentiate feeling of love from feeling of desire toward
strangers”, said lead author of the study, neuroscientist Stephanie Cacioppo,
in a news release.
Although the study means very little for those out there
going on dates, the results could help psychiatrists and couple therapists
develop better diagnostic methods. As neuroscientist John Cacioppo, co-author
of the study, explained in the release, knowing how to identify eye patterns
that are specific to love or lust can help in the development of measurable
indicators that can tell if a person is romantically involved or not.
Source: University of Chicago
Credits to : sciencealert.com Photo Credits to : free-picture.net
