Emotion and perception: brighten up!

A study published in 2012 by Yale cognitive scientists (Song, H., et al, 2012) shows that people perceive smiling faces as being brighter than frowning ones. The paper also mentions a field of research that investigates psychological truths behind common metaphors,

For instance, immoral or guilty feelings increase the perception that one is physically dirty (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006), a sad mood biases people's visual attention in the vertical plane (Meier & Robinson, 2006), and feelings of loneliness are experienced as physical coldness (Bargh & Shalev, in press).

So, if you feel cold, dirty, and see mostly vertical lines it might be the right time to smile.

tags: psychology, biology, control, emotion, science