Demographic variation in how the social brain processes news messages

• Published in: Politics and the life sciences Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 61 - 73
• Main Authors: van Driel, Irene Ingeborg, Grabe, Maria Elizabeth, Bas, Ozen, Kleemans, Mariska
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; French
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 2016
• Subjects: Adult; Bioethics; Brain; Brain research; Cognition; Communication; Consumption; cued recall; Cues; Data processing; Demographic variables; Demographics; Demography; Education; Educational Status; Facial Recognition; Female; Females; Gender; Gender differences; Higher education; Homo sapiens; Human performance; Humans; Information processing; Interviews as Topic; Male; Mass Media; Mass media images; Media; Memory; Mens health; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Navigation behavior; News; Object recognition; Primates; Researchers; Sensory integration; Sex Factors; Sexes; Skills; Social life & customs; Social networks; Social organization; social perception; Television news; Television programming; Visual perception; Visual stimuli; Womens health; education; Gender; facial recognition; media; cued recall; social perception
• ISSN: 0730-9384; 1471-5457
• DOI: 10.1017/pls.2016.3

A high capacity for visual perception distinguishes Homo sapiens from other primates. This human ability to detect social cues and retain visual records of social networks has been tested mostly with static facial images in laboratory settings. However, media consumption has become closely entangled with the way social life is navigated. Therefore, the study reported here tested demographic differences (gender and education) in visual information processing of social and nonsocial objects featured in audiovisual news content. Women recognized (accuracy) and recalled (salience) social images better than men. On the other hand, men were more skilled at recognizing, but not recalling, nonsocial images. Participants with lower educational levels recognized and recalled fewer images than individuals with higher educational levels. Interactions between demographic variables and time suggest that memory records for social images are more stable than those for nonsocial images. Memory may have survival-relevant importance, serving navigational functions that vary across environmental demands, resulting in differences across demographic groups.