C’MON, THE MOST IMPRESSIVE ONES TO THE RIGHT!
Studies report that people use their right side to dream about the biggest, the most impressive, or valuable objects. According to a research conducted by Izmir University of Economics, Department of Psychology, in an elephant-mouse pair, the subjects imagined elephant, with a great physical appearance, on the right side. The winner was a scary shark in shark-whale pair, and in fly-ladybug pair, the subjects imagined the cute ladybug on their right side. The research indicated that the left hemisphere of our brains, which is responsible for right visual area, had an efficient role in perceiving the objects emotionally.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Seda Dural, Lecturer at IUE Department of Psychology, guided sophomore students Aysu Yavaş, Birsu Erkan, Cansu Arslan, Helin Öner, and Nurdan Çamuroğlu on a study called, “Imagine an Elephant and a Mouse!”, where total of 180 subjects were involved. The study indicated that the left hemisphere of our brains sorted out the objects emotionally in terms of dominance, stimulation, and worthiness.
A computer program was prepared for the study that took place at a lab environment. 180 subjects were tested, and shown pictures of animal pairs. They were then asked to place each picture either on the left or right side of the monitor in 4 seconds.
Right side had the biggest, scariest, or cutest!
The subjects always directed their decisions to the dominant side. As indicated in elephant-mouse pair, elephant was the one to go the right side. In shark-whale pair, it was the shark, and in fly-ladybug pair, the cute ladybug moved to the right side. The dominance, stimulation, and worthiness criteria that we use for objects were tested for the first time, and we found out that we were very biased when we were making visual assessments.
The experiment results were awarded the first prize in the field of experimental psychology at the 18th National Psychology Students Congress. Seda Dural stated that the study revealed a biased behaviour in imagining objects with high levels of dominance, stimulation, and worthiness criteria in right visual area. Dural pointed out that a study that analysed the hemispheric asymmetry in imagination was conducted for the first time. Dural said, “We started with the left hemisphere of the brain which is responsible for right visual area. Based on this, the hemispheres get affected by physiological and emotional level when imagining.”
The effects of physical properties and emotional levels of objects on our brains
In the study, where various objects were used, “skyscraper – cottage pair” was used as an example for dominance, “shark-whale pair” for stimulation, and “fly-ladybug pair” for worthiness. And as a “neutral” object pair, marble- blue bead was chosen. The object pairs were shown to the subjects placed one under the other for 2 seconds. After that the screen was divided into two parts with a red line. The participants were asked to imagine the objects for 4 seconds and place them either on the right or left side of the red line. As a result, the scariest, cutest, or largest objects appeared on the right side.
