Science now has answers as to why some people seem overly sensitive to the needs and thoughts of others.
It sounds like something from a sci-fi book, but apparently some of us really can read the mind of others. In fact, most of us can do it on some level, by looking at a person’s eyes.
We often say things like ‘he looked disappointed’, ‘she was holding something back’, or ‘he/she was definitely lying’. But how do we know these things? Science has just discovered a part of the answer.
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Apparently, the type of DNA we have influences our ability to read a person’s thoughts and emotions simply by looking at their eyes.
Back in 1997, scientists from the University of Cambridge developed something called the Eyes Test. It showed that people can read what someone is thinking or feeling just by looking at their eyes. It was the largest of its kind ever done in the world.
At the time, Researchers found that, on average, women score higher than men on the test, and now they’ve found out more.
It seems that some women can do this because they have genetic variants on chromosome 3 that allow them to do so. Curiously, men’s ability to do to the same was not associated with the same genes.
What else? People with this genetic variation are also more empathetic, and have larger volume of stratium in the brain, which plays a role in this characteristic. And those who are autistic or suffer from anorexia often can’t read the emotions on others’ faces at all.
So, it isn’t just a gut feeling- there’s a genetic reason why you may be noticing that something is off. Or, spot on.
For more information on reading faces, click here.
Photo credits: Mikael Miro/Bigstock; Thufir/Bigstock