Senin, 28 Mei 2012

The reason we find cartoon villains so dastardly? Their pointy chins make us feel threatened

The reason we find cartoon villains so dastardly? Their pointy chins make us feel threatened

  • Downward pointing triangles trigger same fear response as angry faces
  • 30 volunteers rated hundreds of pictures for emotions they evoked

By Rob Waugh

PUBLISHED: 10:56 EST, 28 May 2012 | UPDATED: 12:01 EST, 28 May 2012

From Captain Hook to Dick Dastardly and Cruella De Vil, their faces portray evil.

Now scientists have worked out what scares us most about a cartoon baddie â€" their pointy chin.

Warwick University researchers found a downward pointing triangle can make us feel threatened in the same way as an angry face.

Dick Dastardly and Muttley, the villains from the Wacky Races cartoons: Warwick University researchers found that the pointy chins of cartoon villains made viewers feel threatened

Dick Dastardly and Muttley, the villains from the Wacky Races cartoons: Warwick University researchers found that the pointy chins of cartoon villains made viewers feel threatened

Captain Hook's pointy features are designed to make people feel as if they are looking at an angry face

Captain Hook's pointy features are designed to make people feel as if they are looking at an angry face


They believe it is no coincidence the ultimate baddies often have a sinister sharp chin and eyebrows sloping towards a downward point in the middle.

Thirty volunteers were asked to rate hundreds of pictures of faces appearing on a screen as good or bad, kind or cruel, pleasant or unpleasant.

Each picture was flanked by a large picture of a triangle on each side, which, without the participants’ knowledge, worked as a ‘distractor’.

When a face was surrounded by downward pointing triangles, people were slower to identify it as positive and quicker to identify it as negative.

By contrast, left and right pointing triangles had no effect at all on the results, and upwards pointing triangles had a slight positive effect.


It is known from previous studies that people pick negative faces â€" such as sad or angry expressions â€" out of a crowd more quickly than positive ones.

Dr Derrick Watson, of the psychology department, said simple geometric shapes have an emotional effect on us, as they ‘carry the features present within negative or positive faces’. He added: ‘Our study shows downward pointing triangles in particular convey negative emotions and we can pick up on them quickly and perceive them as a thre at.’

Cruela de Vil

Cruela de Vil in the original 101 Dalmatians: Warwick University researchers found that the pointy shape of cartoon villains' chins made people feel as if they were looking at an angry face


The face of V for Vendetta's enigmatic antihero is designed to unnerve - as befits the strange character

The face of V for Vendetta's enigmatic antihero is designed to unnerve - as befits the strange character



This is the first time this link has been made, although previous research has shown angular lines are seen as negative.

Co-author Dr Elisabeth Blagrove said: ‘If we look at cartoon characters the classic baddie will often be drawn with the evil eyebrows that come to a downward point in the middle.
‘This could go some way to explain why we associate the downward pointing triangle with negative faces.’
The study is published in the journal Emotion, published by the American Psychological Association.

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That must be why I'm afraid of Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Hill. What irrelevant rubbish.

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I was never scared of typical cartoon villains ... the only cartoon that ever scared me as a child was the hookah-smoking Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland ...


You?

WHO ARE YOU?


Aaaaaa!!!

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Oh dear - poor Liz Jones!!!

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