Social Engineering Blogs

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Agree to Disagree: Men and Women

Do you or your man smile a lot?  Do you find it sexy?  Do you think he does?  According to fyi Living website, attractive facial expressions vary between the sexes.

Recent studies suggest that men prefer women who bear smiles while women find that quality the most unattractive in a man.

So, which expression do women like the most and which one do men find the least attractive?

Like most things between the two sexes, this research suggests that it is the exact opposite.  Women find a prideful expression on  man to be the most attractive while men find a prideful expression on a women to be the least attractive.

Why are men and women opposites when it comes  to emotion? Science’s take on this is that women find smiles to be more feminine; therefore, lacking dominance.  Prideful expressions indicate a man’s ability to be a good provider; therefore, a strong mate and the most attractive facial expression.

Men on the other hand, love the feminine smile because it reflects a nurturing attitude reminding them of comfort and their mothers.  An interesting finding from these studies is that men and women both find shame to be an attractive facial expression.  We are a convoluted species.

What do you think of these findings? Do you think they bear any weight?

For additional information on men and women and what their body language is saying, take a look at this article from the Times of India.

Eyeless Emotions

According to the Epoch Times blind people can “see” emotions.  Ongoing research has discovered that blindsighted  individuals can not only respond to emotional cues on other people’s faces but can also navigate around objects.

These individuals are dubbed “blindsighted” people because their blindness was brought on by some kind of trauma such as a stroke or a head injury.  Their eyes are actually physically functional.  It is their brain’s reception of images that doesn’t function properly.

Beatrice de Gelder, a neuroscientist at Holland’s Tilburg University says, “Blindsighted people feel they are totally blind. ”

Before this study, it was believed a person with normal eyesight synchronized their facial expressions with others through an automatic response to visual cues.  However, this assumption is now in question.

The “blindsighted” participants in the study  imitated the faces that were loaded with emotion even though they could not see them.

de Gelder commented, “…we don’t have a clear view yet about the abilities of the brain.”   The neuroscientist went on to note in an interview that cortical vision tends to overwhelm a person’s perception, but the activity of other background pathways can be detected in blindsighted people.  These mental pathways allow a person to sense emotion rather then see them.

Take a look at de Gelder’s interview in season two of Through the Wormhole, which aired on July 6, 2011 for more intriguing information on the mysteries of existence.