A new study has revealed that when people feel socially disconnected they are likelier to find other people's faces alive.
Psychological scientist Katherine Powers of Dartmouth College said that this increased sensitivity to animacy suggested that people are casting a wide net when looking for people they can possibly relate to, which might ultimately help them maximize opportunities to renew social connections.
These findings enhanced the understanding of the factors that contributed to face perception, mind perception, and social relationships, but they could also shed light on newer types of relationships that have emerged in the modern age, Powers argues, including our relationships with pets, online avatars, and even pieces of technology, such as computers, robots, and cell phones.
Feeling socially connected was a critical part of human life that impacts both mental and physical health; when people feel disconnected from others, they try to replenish our social connections.
Powers further mentioned that even though two people might be looking at the same face, the point at which they see life and decide that person would be worthy of meaningful social interaction might not be the same, the findings showed that it depends on an individual's social relationship status and motivations for future social interactions.
The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
