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 “looking 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.
两性视界大不同
布里斯托大学（University of Bristol）的一项新研究发现，男性与女性看事物方式这样的生理差别，可能引起性别观点上的不同。 在这项研究中，研究者检查了男性和女性看静止图像（来自电影或艺术作品）时目光会落在何处。他们发现，尽管女性的眼球移动少于男性，但她们看的时间更长，关注的地方比较多。 看人的图像时，上述差异达到了最大程度。将男性与女性的图片展示给参与调查者，所有人都更喜欢看女性的图片，而非男性的图片。然而，这种偏好在女性参与者身上表现的更明显。 男性参与者仅仅对图片上的面孔感兴趣，但女性参与者的目光也会关注身体的其他部分，尤其是图片中女性的体型。 项目组长菲利克斯·莫塞·摩斯（Felix Mercer Moss）说：“这项研究代表了至今为止最令人信服的证据，那就是尽管男性与女性同样地存在于世界上，但他们的视角有时会特别不同。” “我们的研究结果对之前和今后的眼球运动研究和科技应用都有重要的启示。” 眼球运动可以用来收集视觉信息，之后可以用来解释个人对世界的感知。同样，如果人们对世界有不同的理解，眼球运动也会影响他们所搜寻的信息和眼睛所看的地方。 研究者说，男性和女性会看不同的东西，是因为他们理解世界的方式不同。女性更偏爱那些制造了最明显的“视觉模式”的图片。相似的，当他们看那些最可能引起理解差异的图片（比如人物图片），目光关注点也相当不一样。 女性对威胁的敏感性很高--这一感知上的性别差异尤其能说明进一步的发现。一幅图片上信息量最大的部分往往吸引人们的眼球，而包含潜在威胁或危险的部分（比如太阳）则有排斥的效果。 面部则是十分矛盾的部分：既包含大量信息，又存在潜在威胁，如果有眼神接触，威胁就尤其明显。 男性会和图片中的人直接进行眼神接触；而当准备寻找威胁时，女性则将视线稍稍下移，去看鼻子和嘴巴。 研究者相信，这种情况可能是因为女性对进行眼神接触的负面结果更加敏感，因此会将视线下移，去看面部的中间位置。 这项研究已刊登于开放期刊《公共科学图书馆·综合》（“PLoS ONE”）。
