How our expressions help others locate threat

Asian News International:

Wide-eyed expressions, which typically signals fear, may enlarge our visual field and mutually enhance others’ ability to locate threats, a new research has claimed.

The research – conducted by psychology graduate student Daniel Lee of the University of Toronto with advisor Adam Anderson – suggests that wide-eyed expressions of fear are functional in ways that directly benefit both the person who makes the expression and the person who observes it.

The findings of the research show that widened eyes provide a wider visual field that can help us locate potential threats in our environment.

These widened eyes also help to send a clearer gaze signal telling observers to “look there,” which may enhance their ability to locate the same threat, as well.

Lee said that emotional expressions look the way they do for a reason; they are socially useful now for communicating emotional states, but this new research suggests that they were also useful as raw physical signals.

Read the whole story: Asian News International