Three experiments published recently in the journal Cognition sought to locate our physical sense of self. Children and adults viewed several drawings of characters with an object and in each case judged how close the object was to the illustrated person. Results showed that participants tended to measure distance from the character's eyes, even when the object was not in the person's line of sight. The researchers took this to mean that we place the concept of self in the eyes. To make sure that people were not judging distance from the head, researchers included an alien with eyes on its chest in their study. “By moving the eyes off the head, we could test whether people were really drawn to the eyes or just the head in general,” says study author Christina Starmans, a Ph.D. student at Yale University. Both children and adults still perceived the eyes as the location of the self.

This article was originally published with the title Your Eyes, Your Self.

4 Comments

1. 1. curmudgeon 09:16 AM 11/8/12

   " The researchers took this to mean that we place the concept of self in the eyes. "
   
   Oh good. I was worried that they might take an absurd leap of imagination dismissing the obvious interpretatio ..... oh!

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2. 2. vinodkumarsehgal 09:29 AM 11/8/12

   "Self" resides neither in head nor in eyes but its manifestation is thru eyes. In awakened state our ( of"self"?) linkage with outside environment is build primarily, but not solely, based upon eye contact

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3. 3. Derick in TO 10:38 AM 11/8/12

   I think it would be fascinating to do a similar study with blind subjects. Obviously the experiment would need to be reworked.
   For most of us sight is our primary sense, the one we rely on most and which provides the most salient perception of the world, so I think it's only natural that we'd perceive our eyes to be the seat of self.
   I've heard that the blind perceive the world in as rich and textured a way as do sighted people by making better use of their other senses (I have no personal experience to go on here). I wonder if they would perceive the seat of their selves to be perhaps in their ears, or have a more physically diffused sense of the seat of their self.

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4. 4. WRQ9 10:43 AM 11/8/12

   Why not at least show the style of questioning and the percentage of respondents? What is this kind of "scientific" data's value to anyone?

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