Gory, Erotic Images 'Blind' Us
Aug. 22, 2005 — Graphic images that depict violence or eroticism blind us for a split second, according to new research on how the brain processes visual information.
The finding could explain why people have a hard time concentrating after seeing a particularly sexy photo, or after witnessing a car crash while driving. Such images emotionally jolt us to such a degree that they temporarily impair our brain function.
"It may be the fact that violent and erotic images are so intense that leads them to elicit temporary impairments in visual processing," explained Steven Most, who worked on the research.
Findings will be published in this month's Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
Most, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, added, "Hypothetically, it is possible that such images are experienced so intensely because they imply biologically important situations; for example, potential physical danger or a potential mating opportunity."
To determine what happens when we see emotional, graphic images, Most and his colleagues showed test subjects hundreds of photos in rapid sequence, using a computer program.
All of the photographs depicted landscape or architectural scenes, save for a few violent and gory images that were mixed into the sets that flashed by the viewers. These photos showed things like a severed limb and a mysterious figure pointing a gun.
The study was repeated, only this time the researchers inserted erotic images into the sets. This test on eroticism is the focus of a separate, unpublished study.
Viewers for both tests were asked to look for certain photos showing the landscape or architectural scenes. If these target images appeared directly after the gory or sexy photos, the viewers could not see them, even if the target images were turned sideways or if they received additional information about what they should be looking for.
The researchers discovered that viewers were blinded for one-fifth of a second after witnessing the eroticism or gore.
"Brain mechanisms that help us to attend to things become tied up by the provocative image, unable to orient to other stimuli," said Yale researcher Marvin Chun, who also worked on the study. "This is what causes the 'blindness.' Not real blindness, but functionally similar to being momentarily blind."
Daniel Simons, associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, told Discovery News: "This result is a striking example of how emotional reactions can influence what we consciously see. Although the practical ramifications of this sort of emotion blindness have not yet been tested empirically, it seems plausible that a variety of momentary 'blindnesses' like emotion blindness constrain what we see and don't see in our daily lives."
Elizabeth Phelps, director of New York University's The Phelps Lab, whose members study cognitive neuroscience of memory and emotion, added that some emotional reactions are subjective, so individuals could be blinded by different types of images.
David Zald, a Vanderbilt University psychologist who worked on the study, said there was an implication for advertisers.
"People in the advertisement industry have long known that erotic or disturbing images can grab consumers' attention," Zald told Discovery News. "However, our findings suggest that if you present relevant information, such as a brand name, too quickly after an emotional image, the viewer might not actually process it.
"Thus, although a TV ad might be extremely successful at grabbing our attention, we may be left with absolutely no idea of what was actually being sold."
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20 ... n_cml_news
