Twenty years ago, John Gray published a popular book titled Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Gray posited that most common relationship problems between men and women are a result of fundamental differences between the genders.
New research from the University of Bristol finds that the difference in gender viewpoints may begin with a physiological difference in the way men and women look at objects.
In the study, researchers examined where men and women looked while viewing still images from films and pieces of art. They found that while women made fewer eye movements than men, those they did make were longer and to more varied locations.
These differences were largest when viewing images of people. With photos of heterosexual couples, both men and women preferred looking at the female figure rather than the male one. However, this preference was even stronger for women.
While men were only interested in the faces of the two figures, women’s eyes were also drawn to the rest of the bodies — in particular that of the female figure.
According to Felix Mercer Moss, the study leader: “The study represents the most compelling evidence yet that, despite occupying the same world, the viewpoints of men and women can, at times, be very different.
“Our findings have important implications for both past and future eye movement research together with future technological applications.”
Eye movements are a tool used to collect visual information, which then colors an individual’s perception of the world. Equally, when individuals have different interpretations of the world, this in turn affects the information they seek and, consequently, the places they look.
The researchers suggest that men and women look at different things because they interpret the world differently. The pictures preferred by women were the same pictures that produced the most distinct “l(fā)ooking patterns.” Similarly, the pictures with the largest scope for a difference in interpretation — those with people — also produced the largest differences between where men and women looked.
One perceptual sex difference in particular — women’s increased sensitivity to threat — may explain a further finding. People’s eyes are drawn to the most informative regions of an image while also being repelled from areas that carry possible threat or danger, for example the sun.
Faces are a paradoxical example of a region that is both highly informative and potentially threatening, particularly if eye contact is made.
While men made direct eye contact with faces in the pictures; especially when primed to look for threat, women averted their gaze downward slightly towards the nose and mouth of these faces.
The researchers believe this may be due to women being more sensitive to the negative consequences of making direct eye contact and will, therefore, shift their gaze downward, towards the centre of the face.
兩性視界大不同
布里斯托大學(xué)（University of Bristol）的一項新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，男性與女性看事物方式這樣的生理差別，可能引起性別觀點上的不同。 在這項研究中，研究者檢查了男性和女性看靜止圖像（來自電影或藝術(shù)作品）時目光會落在何處。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管女性的眼球移動少于男性，但她們看的時間更長，關(guān)注的地方比較多。 看人的圖像時，上述差異達到了最大程度。將男性與女性的圖片展示給參與調(diào)查者，所有人都更喜歡看女性的圖片，而非男性的圖片。然而，這種偏好在女性參與者身上表現(xiàn)的更明顯。 男性參與者僅僅對圖片上的面孔感興趣，但女性參與者的目光也會關(guān)注身體的其他部分，尤其是圖片中女性的體型。 項目組長菲利克斯·莫塞·摩斯（Felix Mercer Moss）說：“這項研究代表了至今為止最令人信服的證據(jù)，那就是盡管男性與女性同樣地存在于世界上，但他們的視角有時會特別不同。” “我們的研究結(jié)果對之前和今后的眼球運動研究和科技應(yīng)用都有重要的啟示?！?/span> 眼球運動可以用來收集視覺信息，之后可以用來解釋個人對世界的感知。同樣，如果人們對世界有不同的理解，眼球運動也會影響他們所搜尋的信息和眼睛所看的地方。 研究者說，男性和女性會看不同的東西，是因為他們理解世界的方式不同。女性更偏愛那些制造了最明顯的“視覺模式”的圖片。相似的，當(dāng)他們看那些最可能引起理解差異的圖片（比如人物圖片），目光關(guān)注點也相當(dāng)不一樣。 女性對威脅的敏感性很高--這一感知上的性別差異尤其能說明進一步的發(fā)現(xiàn)。一幅圖片上信息量最大的部分往往吸引人們的眼球，而包含潛在威脅或危險的部分（比如太陽）則有排斥的效果。 面部則是十分矛盾的部分：既包含大量信息，又存在潛在威脅，如果有眼神接觸，威脅就尤其明顯。 男性會和圖片中的人直接進行眼神接觸；而當(dāng)準備尋找威脅時，女性則將視線稍稍下移，去看鼻子和嘴巴。 研究者相信，這種情況可能是因為女性對進行眼神接觸的負面結(jié)果更加敏感，因此會將視線下移，去看面部的中間位置。 這項研究已刊登于開放期刊《公共科學(xué)圖書館·綜合》（“PLoS ONE”）。
