The Heart's Signals Impact Our Gut Instincts.
A study by Royal Holloway academics shows that signals from the heart influence how much we are suggestible to other people's opinions. The researchers investigated how signals from the heart to the brain influence how much we stick to our own judgment or decide to follow others. Participants were shown photographs of faces either during the systolic or diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle and were asked to judge how trustworthy they found the faces to be. People changed their minds more when the faces were presented during the contraction of the heart than when the faces were presented between heartbeats. The findings help us understand how social influences on our decision making can depend on the signals conveyed by the body to the brain via the heart.