We’ve learned a lot about the visual system by looking at ways to force it to wrong conclusions, which we call optical illusions or visual art. Can we do a similar thing for this postulated social cognition system? For example, how do actors get us to have social feelings toward people who don’t really exist? And what rules do movie directors follow to keep us from getting confused by cuts from one camera angle to another?
We’ve learned a lot about the visual system by looking at ways to force it to wrong conclusions, which we call optical illusions or visual art. Can we do a similar thing for this postulated social cognition system? For example, how do actors get us to have social feelings toward people who don’t really exist? And what rules do movie directors follow to keep us from getting confused by cuts from one camera angle to another?