It’s easy to tell when somebody isn’t paying attention — their eyes wander, and they say “mm hm” a lot. But what about when they are doing a good job of pretending to pay attention by meeting your eyes? Now a University of Western Ontario psychology researcher says it’s possible to monitor who is not paying attention at work or in school even when they are feigning interest. It all has to do with your neck.
Dr. Brian Corneil recorded subtle movements of people’s neck muscles to measure where their attention was focused. The results were very accurate, leading him to conclude that:
This finding may fundamentally change how attention is measured . . . the neck muscles are recruited during covert orienting, even in the absence of eye movements.
Does this mean that your neck muscles will be monitored next time you’re forced to watch a boring instructional video at work? Maybe not, but it might be the perfect weapon during an interrogation, where the questioner wants to absorb every bit of the detainee’s attention in order to get inside his or her head. Any time there’s a test to measure something you’re doing “covertly,” beware the consequences. AP Photo/USMEPCOM Public Affairs.
A real attention-grabber [Eurekalert]
