I'VE ONLY GOT EYES FOR YOU!

It is common knowledge that our pupils, or the dark hole in our eyes created by the colored iris, will constrict or dilate dependant on how much or how little light is present and shining at the eyes. We can also use eye drops to cause the muscles of the eye to dilate or even constrist, reversing dilation. However, one lesser known variable of our pupils is our emotions. Emotions can trigger an increase in hormones that may cause our pupils to respond in certain ways. We want to dive a little deeper into how the pupils can change based on attraction or other emotions!

Why does this happen?

While it is still not fully certain why our bodies use pupil dilation as a response in certain circumstances, it can be repeated over and over again. Researchers have boiled it down to the “fight or flight’ system that our bodies utilize daily. When our eyes view an image, our visual cortex in the back of our brains assemble these images and can stimulate our autonomic nervous system’s sympathetic branch. When this is triggered, it will cause pupil dilation as well as other symptoms such as increased heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. While these changes can trigger pupil dilation, it is on a much smaller scale than when our pupils respond to light.

FOCUS

When we have to focus on something for a long period of time, whether it is something challenging like a math problem or just simply holding our attention like a movie, our eyes can dilate as well. We found it interesting that a Princeton University psychologist found pupils can dilate in proportion to the range of captivating tasks. For instance, a simple math problem may dilate your pupils slightly. But if we ask you to calculate 9x354-1278 divided by 3, your pupils will widen much further and probably will not decrease in size until the problem is solved! This psychologist even went so far as to say that he could tell when someone has given up on a math problem simply by watching the pupils constrict! It’s incredible how precise our eyes can be a tell of our mental effort, or lack thereof. A 2010 study concluded that our pupils can even reveal what we are about to do before it is done. They asked participants to press a button during a 10 second period of time, at any point they wanted. Each time, dilation began 1 second before the button was pressed and peaked 2 seconds following the action.

Attraction

In our research, we found a few interesting articles proving that our pupils can respond based on our level of attraction as well. One 2012 study monitored patient pupil sizes while being shown videos that, let’s just say, might get them hot and bothered! It proved that there was overwhelming evidence to support pupil dilation in this type of viewing pleasure. They were even able to confirm sexual orientation based solely on their pupil response using size of the pupil and darkness of the pupil as a gauge to different subject matters.

Our eyes truly are the windows to what we really feel and think. While we don’t know all the scientific reasoning behind our pupils dilating to show emotions and concentration, it is fun to learn about! You just might want to test it out on your next date night or to tell if your kiddo is actually trying to solve that math problem rather than just waiting for you to tell them the answer!