TNI Bureau: A recent study has suggested that irritating people can affect minds of the people around him. The researchers discovered that being in the company of annoying people slows the pace of mind that it moves normally.
Past researches in this context had shown that race or physical similarity can influence brain processes.
Accordingly researchers from the University of Southern California took some Jews men and split them into two groups. The first group was presented as neo-Nazis, with the aim of making them disliked and the second group was presented as likable and open-minded.
The research found that when the men viewed someone they disliked, the right ventral premotor cortex, the part of the brain that otherwise activates in ‘mirroring’ was observed to be of a different pattern of activity for the disliked men as compared to the likeable ones.
‘Mirroring’ affect is the reaction of the brain by watching movement of someone else. Interestingly, being around someone you don’t like can make your mind think that the person is moving more slowly than they actually are.
Further, the difference was only spotted when the annoying person was physically around. But there was no difference in brain activity when the men watched videos of the people they disliked.
Mona Sobhani, lead author of the paper said that ‘Even something as basic as how we process visual stimuli of a movement is modulated by social factors, such as our interpersonal relationships and social group membership’ the Daily Mail reported.
From the outcome of the research it can be ascertained that social factors affects perception of a social being.