The Importance of Being Frightened
June 20, 2008 | Source: ScienceNOW News
Emotional facial expressions confer a survival advantage, University of Toronto researchers have found, using vision and breathing tests.
A fearful visage improves peripheral vision, speeds up eye movement, and boosts air flow, potentially allowing a person to more quickly sense and respond to danger. Squinty, scrunched-up disgusted faces had the opposite effect, limiting vision and decreasing air flow, ostensibly to keep out substances that might be harmful to the eyes or lungs.