A genetic variation can significantly affect how people see and experience the world, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in western Canada. Participants who had the variation ADRA2b were more likely to notice negative words when shown a rapid succession of positive, negative and neutral words.
Some people “more tuned to the negative”
“They were more tuned… their brain filters were more tuned to the negative in the environment,” said Rebecca Todd, a psychological scientist at UBC and lead author of the study. “What that might translate into in real life is being more likely to spot an angry or hostile face in a crowd of faces or being out in nature and perceiving more hazards than natural beauty.
What it means is that biological differences at the genetic level can contribute to individual differences in emotional perception. They cannot account entirely for someone’s outlook because many other factors come into play as well.
Genes and experience count
“I think most of us know intuitively that there are differences in how people see the world,” said Todd. “But this tells us that there are really, literally differences in how people see the world and there is a biological component to that although of course, one’s experience is very important to it.”
Todd says the finding make her a bit more tolerant of people who can look at the exact same scene as she is, but see it quite differently.
Some more vulnerable to flashbacks
“I think knowing that this different way of seeing the world is linked to greater vulnerability to flashbacks and traumatic memories can hopefully give us insight into how to understand and treat that side of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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