Reading through chapter four (sensation and perception) of the psychology text book, I came across an interesting topic about the pupil. The pupil is the circular opening in the center of the iris that lets light enter the eyes. The pupil constricts as a reflex response to light or objects approaching us, causing it to appear smaller. For example, after being inside a building and walking into the bright sunshine outside, our eyes have a pupillary reflex as a response to decrease the amount of light allowed into them. This happens in both eyes simultaneously. Shining a flashlight into one eye triggers the reflex in both.
Our pupils appear lager by dilating when we try to process complex information and when we view someone physically attractive. This finding helps to explain why someone would find a person with larger pupils more attractive than a person with smaller pupils, even when they are not aware of the difference.
Reading about this from the text book really caught my attention. It had me very curious and asking myself questions about it like "Does my boyfriend have big pupils? If yes, since he has big pupils, is that a real reason why I would find him attractive?" I explored my curiosity by researching more about this topic online. I came to find that pupil size is affected by ones general state of arousal. The eyes are a key signal in courtship. If a woman is attracted to a man, she will dilate her pupils at him and he is likely to decode this signal correctly without even noticing that he is (this can be related to flirting). When lovers look deep into each others eyes, without even knowing it, they are looking for pupil dilation signals and become excited by the dilation of the other person's pupils, hence feeling that attraction.
Applying this research to the business world, we can see how ads found in newspapers, magazine's, etc increase the appeal of their models by enlarging their pupils. Altering the pupil area in the photograph to appear larger, causes people to rate the models in the photograph as more attractive. Therefore, this can be a good way to increase sales of any product using a close up of the face with an enlarged pupil. Looking at the ad of a product that has your interest, is the product truly effective or does the attractive model in the picture persuade you to like it?
After learning all this I find myself trying to see if I notice the increase in my pupil size after being around someone I'm attracted to or when looking at ads. Its amazing how the dilation and constriction of our pupils is connected not only with different light conditions but also with mood.
http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/chap8.html
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