AP52844

Science Summary

The results of this study have shown that our brains are able to judge the trustworthiness of a face even when we cannot consciously see it. The findings of this study have shed new light on how we form snap judgments of others.The researchers focused on the workings of the brain's amygdala, a structure that is important for' social and emotional behavior. Previous studies have shown this structure to be active in judging the trustworthiness of faces. However, it had not been known if the amygdala is capable of responding to a complex social signal like a face's trustworthiness without that signal reaching perceptual awareness.To gauge this part of the brain's role in making such assessments they monitored the activity of subjects' amygdala while the subjects were exposed to a series of facial images.The researchers found that specific regions inside the amygdala displayed activity tracking how untrustworthy a face appeared, and other regions inside the amygdala showed activity tracking the overall strength of the trustworthiness signal (whether untrustworthy or trustworthy) -- even though subjects could not consciously see any of the faces.These findings provide evidence that the amygdala's processing of social cues in the absence of awareness may be more extensive than previously understood.

References: New York University. "Our brains judge a face's trustworthiness, even when we can’t see it." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 August 2014. 

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