D&D Monster Study Proves Eyes Have It

sciencehabit writes with this excerpt from Science: "The dungeon is pitch black — until the dungeon master blazes a torch, confirming your worst fears. A Beholder monster lurches at you, its eyeballs wriggling on tentacular stems. As you prepare to wield your Vorpal sword, where do you focus your gaze: at the monster's head or at its tentacle eyes? Such a quandary from the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons may seem like a meaningless trifle, but it holds within it the answer to a tricky scientific question: Do people focus their gaze on another person's eyes or on the center of the head? In fact, a father-son team has used D&D monsters to show that most people will look to another creature's eyes, even if they're not attached to a head."

Comments

Boobies

[PoopManners]

I don't watch at eyes, I watch at boobs amirite?

Re:Boobies

[HornWumpus]

Old joke: Why don't men look women in the eyes? Cause their eyes aren't on their tits.

Re:Boobies

[HornWumpus]

Better study: Show men pictures of women with nipples for eyes and eyes for nipples and check where they look. Take the pre-photoshop picture in a cold studio.

Re:Boobies

[cayenne8]

Actually...get the boob looking out of the way before you approach her....

For building repoire with a girl you're trying to meet....give them eye contact, and usually...have them to be the first one to drop it, dominance thing.

This isn't just with women...in meetings, or when I'm trying to push my agenda, etc...I generally focus my gaze usually directly into their right eye (just pick one, doesn't really matter that much I don't think)...but with that situation or even just friendly ones....it imparts to people that YOU are engaged in them, and interested and listening to them.

Staring at the floor, or something else on them...just doesn't cut it, if you're wanting to truly interact with them, or especially want to exert your influence...I find that doing the right eye contact is a big help.

Re:Boobies

[amicusNYCL]

I generally focus my gaze usually directly into their right eye (just pick one, doesn't really matter that much I don't think)

I had a roommate with eyes that focused in different directions, I would usually look at the eye that wasn't looking at me to make him keep shifting his gaze.

Re:Boobies

[al.caughey]

I knew I came to /. for a reason... and I just figured out that it is to get expert advice on social skills and how to meet girls

Re:Boobies

[azalin]

Oh, I just got a hardon imagining a Beholder with boobies on all it's tentacles instead of eyes...

So beauty would in the boob of the beholder?

Re:Boobies

[geekoid]

"I hate looking at people's eyes (probably aspergers) s"

STFU.

Eyes show emotion

[captaindomon]

It has been shown many times in studies that people are able to read a lot of emotion by looking at another person's eyes. Looking at foreheads doesn't give you a tactical advantage, but if you can look in someone's eyes you can see what they are feeling most of the time. You can also see where they are looking, and where their attention is at, which is critical. Of course, good magicians know this and look at the wrong things at the wrong times to mislead you ;)

Re:Eyes show emotion

[ideonexus]

One of my martial arts teachers always instructed me to focus my gaze on my opponent's solar plexus so that I could see what their legs and arms were doing in the peripheral vision and to never move the gaze from that point so as not to telegraph my intention with my eyes. Kick boxing ended up being probably the most important class I ever took in my life. It taught me to never get in a fight.

Re:Eyes show emotion

[alexgieg]

It has been shown many times in studies that people are able to read a lot of emotion by looking at another person's eyes.

This is also the main reason most manga and anime authors prefer to draw big eyes. They're a much easier way to transmit emotions than body postures, allowing for a faster drawing process. In fact, one of the ways they to show a character (usually a villain) as having little to no emotion is by drawing small eyes on him, what also serves as contrast between pure lack of emotion and mere introversion (a character with cold demeanor plus big eyes). Lead characters, in contrast, have the biggest eyes in the cast. And if it's a soap story directed towards female teens you'll find HUGE eyes almost everywhere.

As a side note for those who don't know: there are tons of "small eyed" manga. Those are usually directed towards adults. What actually defines manga as a style isn't eye size then, but scene transition, which is based on action movies. That's why supposed "manga" drawn by Western authors usually feels wrong to fans: even though their characters are manga-like, their scene transition tends to follow super-hero comics patterns, with lots of poses, high expectation "halted impact" scenes, and step-by-step slow-motion-like narrative. Hence, not manga.

But...

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

But the head IS a giant eye.

That explains everything

[sl4shd0rk]

Being in IT support, we see many people come in without eyes, or common sense, attached to their head. Many times, the head is firmly impacted in the nether regions but this malady is most common with upper management.

Is this a trick question?

[Anonymous Coward]

I, and I imagine most slashdotters, look at my feet when interacting with other people. Especially women.

Re:Is this a trick question?

[vlm]

I, and I imagine most slashdotters, look at my feet when interacting with other people. Especially women.

Why are your keyboard and monitor by your feet? I'm not flexible enough to type that way anymore.

Re:Is this a trick question?

[Darby]

I, and I imagine most slashdotters, look at my feet when interacting with other people. Especially women.

Not me. I'm a bold, dashing ladies' man. I look at their feet.

Survival Advantage.

[Tackhead]

There was a profound and significant bias towards looking early and often at the eyes of humans and humanoids and also, critically, at the eyes of monsters.

Makes sense. There's a survival advantage whether you're predator or prey, it doesn't matter if you can see it, it's whether or not it can see you. Being able to see its head, claws, or gelsacs is useful, but the thing that gives you a survival advantage is knowing whether or not it can see you. If you can see its eyes, it can see you. (The converse - if you can't see its eyes, it can't see you - does not hold unless you're a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.)

Car Analogy: Same as if you're driving on the highway past an 18-wheeler. If I can see the trucker's eyes in the side mirrors, he can see me. (I'll assume he can't for the sake of prudence, but it's possible he can see me). If I can't see his eyes in the side mirrors, it's my responsibility to position me vehicle in such a way that he can see me, and/or somewhere he can't hit me whether he can see me or not.

Neither

[Hatta]

Most D&D players look at their shoes. The extraverted D&D player looks at the GM's shoes.

I wonder

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

If this "research" will qualify for the Ig-Noble awards next year.

I knew it!

[shaitand]

This is proof that D&D contains all the secrets to life, the universe, and everything!

Re:Basic martial arts.

[Tragedy4u]

Not true, many instructors (Sensai, Sifu etc) will tell you to stare at the centre of your opponent's chest. The eyes can lie, if look at the centre of the chest you get a better field of view of how an opponents limbs are moving which can allow you to react better against a feint or a true attack.

read the abstract, disappointed with the methods

[HPHatecraft]

For starters, did any of the participants in the experiments roll any savings throws? Lame.

Experimenter: "OK, you encounter a beholder, and... it gets initiative. You: it fires... (dice roll) a beam from eye-stalk number 7."

Participant: "Uh, OK."

Experimenter: "Roll the dice. No. No, the other one. Yeah. OK. I see you failed your save vs paralysis".

Participant: "Huh? (sees the taser in the experimenter's hand) No, wait!!"

Experimenter: Zzzzzaaap!

Experimenter: "Hm. He's not moving... oops. Hey. Did anyone roll a cleric? Anyone? What?!? Goddammit!

Re:Basic martial arts.

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Slightly off topic, but this is how you're coached to defend in basketball and football too. Check the opponents center of gravity, not their eyes.

Re:Basic martial arts.

[Princeofcups]

Always look at your opponents eyes, (if they're not highly skilled) they will usually look at an area before making a move in that direction.

Please mod this down. Looking at your opponents eyes is the last thing you want to do. Nor do you want to stare at a weapon, or at their chest as someone else posted. You want to see all of the opponent, and not focus at any one particular place. If anything, you want to fix your gaze slightly past the opponent. Then any movement, be it head, foot, hand, can be seen equally. Just watch UFC if you disagree. See that kind of glassy unfocused look in their eyes? That's what you want.