Column: The Natural View; From cartoons to Halle Barry: Research proves images are linked to human behavior
Writing a science and environment column in Utah can be very overwhelming. The activities of the Utah Legislature alone could occupy all my time and energy desperately trying to defend the frontal assault on our environment and Constitution. Trying to overcome the “shock and awe” of recent politics and find more inner peace, I logged off the Utah House and Senate Web pages and pursued the only imagery powerful enough to overcome my anxiety and stress … “Hmmm t-e-l-e-v-i-s-i-o-n.”
Just when I thought politicians might have cornered the market on crazy, I found myself captivated by the news coverage of the now infamous Belgium Mohammed cartoon international incident.
The next day while reading the Statesman, I realized my environmental column had been bumped off the issue because of space limitations created by the heated dialogue over the Persian Peacock’s pin-up girl advertisement (otherwise referred to as pornography). Everywhere I turned, there was no escape: humans everywhere around me were consumed with conflict over the meaning behind two-demensional images, but not even real photo-like images, just mere symbolic renderings! Fine! Ignore the environment!
With nothing left to do, I gave in and began investigating what science has to say about images, symbols and human behavior. Turns out I opened quite the can of worms, a Pandora’s box, a bee’s nest, a pile of … Psychologists, anthropologists, behavioral biologists and neurobiologists seem to have some surprisingly similar conclusions about the importance of images, symbols and motifs to humankind.
The late psychologist Carl Jung developed a theory that all people have instinctive qualities originating in primitive man, what he termed a “collective unconscious.” Within the “collective unconscious” are “archetypes” – basically we ALL have innate, emotionally charged (irrational) tendencies to symbolize reality in certain ways. What Jung was getting at, is that all people, across all cultures, tend to organize and symbolize emotion in similar ways regardless of cultural differences, and these symbols take on similar visual forms and shapes that have great meaning. Circles, curves, squares, rectangles, rods – displayed in various configurations, represent different archetypes such as the sun, the mother, the male, the eye, fertility, destruction, etc.
Many scientists claim that, although some visual details may vary, these mythological or primordial archetypes are not cultural, but genetic, and date to our Paleolithic cave dwelling, knuckle-dragging ancestors. Psychologists assert that if we can better understand these emotionally charged archetypes and how they affect us, we will be a whole lot happier – I’m all for that!
The traditional idea of the human brain was that multiple neurons and brain areas would be activated in order to process and translate a complex image or symbol into a recognizable concept.
Due to medical advances in brain imaging and monitoring, UCLA neurobiologists recently found that single brain neurons, (single brain cells) were responsible for recognizing specific images or symbols. When the researchers showed test individuals the letters “H-a-l-l-e B-a-r-r-y”, the same single neuron lit up as when they showed a image of the actress, or an image of “Cat Woman,” suggesting that an image or symbol is a basic building block for human thought, probably underlying all language. But how much of this recognition of shape and form is learned?
We assume that ALL our ideas about images and symbols must be learned from our environment. However, behavioral research has shows humans having innate attraction to, or fear of, particular shapes, images or symbols. Newborn infants will instinctively prefer to gaze at moving edges of their mother’s face; the most attractive being the sharp intersecting edges at the corner of her eyes, the contrast between the iris and the white if the eye and the contrast between the eyebrow and skin. Psychologists believe this is one of the most critical stages of early child development.
If the expression, or geometry, of the mother’s eye is benevolent and kind, its shape and form will calm the child and reduce anxiety and stress. If her eye expression is not so kind, or totally absent in the case of orphans, children tend to have enhanced levels of stress and anxiety.
Interestingly, these stressed children have much higher risk of developing autism at varying levels. Autistic children tend to not make eye contact or see human shapes or forms as soothing or calming. They look for non-humans shapes or forms and often become fixated on ordering and classifying non-human objects or images in an attempt to search for the same relief of stress or anxiety.
0Many researchers have concluded that human cultures have always created symbols, images or artistic renderings of good and evil, of dangerous predators and life-sustaining harvest, of tribal identity vs. tribal enemies – all to help deal with stress and anxiety, because connecting a physical form, image or representation to a feeling or emotion will help channel, ease or manage the emotion itself. Whatever the case, images and symbols representing concepts like God, mother, seductress, evil and fertility are probably the most deeply rooted, emotionally charged human concepts of all time.
Just when we thought the debate was about the First Amendment, free speech, Muslims and pornography. In this context, I guess it is kind of a miracle we haven’t already butchered one another over symbols or images – oh wait, I guess we have. Well, it’s a miracle our government policy isn’t based on symbols of “good” vs. “evil” – oh wait. OK fine, never mind.
Hopefully we can learn to be more sensitive to our ancient symbols and realize that when you combine a symbol or image of a “god” together with one of “evil” – there’s going to be some irrational behavior! Due to the potential for weeks of violence, an ensuing international incident and my need to get a degree, I chose not to include my personal artistic rendition of a Muslim-Persian pin-up girl. You’re welcome.
John Goodell’s column normally appears every Friday. Send any questions or comments to jmgoodell@cc.usu.edu.