People who are sad or depressed often avoid direct eye contact. A psychologist conducting experiments to uncover how mood can affect how a person sees someone else.
That's according to recent research from Dr. Peter Hills, professor of Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University. This study shows that happy people prefer to detect changes in the eyes of people who are not happy. Dr. Hills also found the opposite, that people are sad more accurately detect external changes through changes in hair style.
"Individuals who are depressed tend to avoid eye contact in social situations and in experimental. While the unhappy people who would actively seek eye contact," said Dr. Hills as reported from anglia.ac.uk, Tuesday (07/26/2011) .
According to Dr. Hills, avoidance of eye contact may increase deperesi in individuals who are not happy and can lead to self-isolation. Sadly people will avoid eye contact that would interfere with social communication and cause them to alienate themselves from certain social situations.
"While this can reduce levels of anxiety caused by the situation itself, it can increase social isolation and sadness to deepen their hearts," said Dr. Hills.
Participants who are sad to be avoiding eye contact. People who will process the sad face based on external characteristics rather than internal traits. Internal traits include eye and nose are the most commonly used to recognize faces. "Participants who may be looking at all the sad faces in the same way, as if everything is not known, which increases the risk of experiencing social isolation," said Dr. Hills.
In that study, Dr. Hills and Dr. Lewis faces up to 12 prototypes using computer-based system facial reconstruction. This software uses a number of features to choose from such as head shape, hairstyle, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and chin shape. The characteristics are then enlarged, diminished or replaced by other characteristics.
To influence mood, participants were given memory exercises while listening to a kind of musical autobiography selected and tested by undergraduate psychology in previous studies. For example Mozart played to create the conditions sadly, the music of The A-Team for the happy situation and the soundtrack of The Hunt for Red October for neutral conditions.