The human brain can judge the apparent trustworthiness of a face from a glimpse so fleeting, the person has no idea they have seen it, scientists claim.
Researchers in the US found that brain activity changed in response to how trustworthy a face appeared to be when the face in question had not been consciously perceived.
Scientists made the surprise discovery during a series of experiments that were designed to shed light on the the neural processes that underpin the snap judgments people make about others.
The findings suggest that parts of our brains are doing more complex subconscious processing of the outside world than many researchers thought.
via Human brain subliminally judges ‘trustworthiness’ of faces | Science | theguardian.com.
