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Mood Literally Affects How We See World
We’ve all heard of rose-colored
glasses. New research suggests that mood really may
affect our vision.
By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News
Although people in a good mood may not see things
tinted with pink, they do take in more information
when they look at something. Meanwhile, people in a
bad mood are more likely to see with tunnel vision.
The research has been published in the Journal of
Neuroscience.
Researchers at the University of Toronto conducted
the study, which included 16 participants with a
mean age of 22. All participants had normal vision.
Participants were shown images designed to affect
their mood in a good, neutral, or bad way. Then they
were shown images, each with a face in the middle
and surrounded by a place, such as a house.
Participants were asked to identify the gender of
the face. When in a bad mood, participants only took
in information about the face. When in a good mood,
participants also took in information about the
surroundings.
Researchers were able to track this through
functional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI,
technology of the brain.
Being in a good mood -- and taking in more
information -- can be a positive or negative thing,
depending on the circumstances, researchers said.
“Good moods enhance the literal size of the window
through which we see the world,” Taylor Schmitz, a
graduate student in psychology at the University of
Toronto and lead author of the study, says in a
written statement.
“The
upside of this is that we can see things from a more
global, or integrative perspective. The downside is
that this can lead to distraction on critical tasks
that require narrow focus, such as operating
dangerous machinery or airport screening of
passenger baggage.”
©
WebMD. All rights reserved.
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“Good moods enhance the literal
size of the window through which we see the
world” |
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