Do you feel anything when looking at upsetting pictures?

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Studies show that when looking at upsetting pictures, like a car crash or someone seriously hurt, stress neurons are activated in the brain. In other words, when looking at photos of strangers (bloody/gory), the body feels stressed.

When looking at erotic pictures OTOH, reward circuitry in the brain is triggered.

Personally, I feel upset when looking at severely starving children or parents, children who were abused and other images like this. However, I can't imagine a photo of a car crash triggering any emotion, but apparently most people WOULD feel emotion, namely stress. This was surprising and makes me wonder if comparatively speaking i'm "numb".

i also can't imagine a pic of a random handsome guy triggering any emotion at all (it never has), and i've leafed through a fair share of magazines.

What is your reaction to photos, is it an Aspie trait to not feel anything in particular in relation to them?

/edit: There are images that do make me upset but just random stuff disconnected from a narrative....no

Last edited by tjr1243 on 26 May 2012, 11:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have felt stressed before when looking at gore, but only the extreme stuff (like beheadings). Other than some discomfort and one time a headache following...probably not a typical reaction to something like that, but I'm not sure. Now, you may wonder why I would watch such a thing...it is sheer curiosity. I've also watched surgeries, and such for the same reason people watch Discovery channel or Animal Planet... curiosity of how the world works.

As far as what makes pleasure centers light up in my brain when viewing something that I find attractive...I would only say that I'm extremely particular. It is difficult for me to find someone attractive strictly by looking at them. In order to be truly attracted I have to know what their personality is.

Keep in mind, usually in these kind of studies they are recording things that you can't actually detect yourself (e.g. the behaviour of neurons). A 'stress' response is not necessarily something you would register consciously, so while you may not think you have a response, there still may be something happening inside your brain. Often they will do these sorts of studies with the particular purpose of finding out what is happening subconsciously, and how that influences our behaviours which we falsely believe are the result of rational, conscious thought.

I don't get many emotional 'feelings' in response to pictures such as car crashes and dead bodies, but I am pretty sure a response is still occurring behind the scenes.

Try this one.
http://youtu.be/3s3ytyCfFMA
I got funny looks at work for saying that they probly didnt feel a thing.

How ever this one caused an emotional responce http://youtu.be/xtLZhC6em1k

Looking at unsettling pictures makes me feel nauseous.

Most pictures do not trigger anything in me except associational thoughts (for example when I see picture of starved chlidren, my mind usually goes something like this: "Oh, there is a starved child there.....speaking of food, I wonder what I should cook for dinner").

My part of empathetic circuit that is responsible for imagining the suffering of others gets excited (and I must say that it is unpleasant to the point I can barely move) when perceiving someone getting painfully injured in a way that will have a long term consequences (i.e. things such as damage to eyes, breaking fingers or driving a pole through the body of conscious human being. However, the necessary condition is, that this human being must be conscious (surgeries do not trigger anything). This reaction (I basically feel sensation similar to pain in the body part that is being damaged) is so strong I am unable to watch a violent movies such as Saw and most of really violent horror movies. Also, interestingly enough, damage such as simple beating (even exceptionally rough one) does not trigger any reaction, unless there is bone breaking involved.

That's why the media doesn't usually show graphic photos of the wars in the middle east. If they did people would make a real connection with how terrible it is, and they would lose more public support. In 2003 CNN wouldn't usually show photos of dead Iraqi soldiers because of this.

Seeing pictures of gore, or watching videos of beheadings, or a guy getting his head beat in with a hammer, or whatever, does not disturb me. I often find the pictures fascinating - "oh, so that's what it looks like when..." I find it strange how most people can only look for an instant and then they look away, but I can look as long as I like. I know that it's horrible bad stuff, and I know it gives most people a reaction - that it should be making me react - but it doesn't cause me to have any reaction.

Probably cause you can't visualize what it's like to actually be the person, or see things from another perspective besides your own.

Yeah, probably. I also have a very hard time imagining someone not being able to speak German, or using a different repetition number with OCD-type stuff (I use 3 and 7 - hearing of someone using another number like 5 just feels wrong and unsettling to me, no offense to anyone who does that). It's also difficult for me to imagine someone not knowing how to play the piano (or any other instrument I know). It just confounds me when I see someone who can't play it at all fiddling around with it.

Edit: I want to add that I find it logical that some people don't play music - it's just that I can't imagine not being able to play something.

You'd have to define "upsetting".

I can't see something as "upsetting" unless I have some tangible connection to it.

I don't need a picture. I just need to be reminded that such things exist.

Which you just did, and which caused a sort of tension in my arms and legs--I can't explain it any other way--which I suppose could be described as "discomfort" or "wrongness". I can't say that it's sympathy, because I don't need a specific person or a specific situation; I don't need to know the person. And it's not emotional, either. It's more like seeing a math problem with the wrong solution, or a piece out of place in a pattern, or an unwieldy prime like 17.

BTW, that doesn't mean I'm mad at you for doing it. My own thoughts remind me all the time. Why d'you think I keep working to fix things like that? Everything in me says they need to be fixed, and I'm truly happy only when I'm doing something to fix them. Of course I know I can't ever make a huge difference; but a small difference is enough for me, because I'm only a small person and I'm only responsible for the things I'm actually capable of doing (and sustainably doing; it's no good to go too far and burn out; then you're useless).

But I guess what I experience is just what every human experiences, only without the specific distress people experience when they see a specific situation (which, like I said, I don't experience too strongly). Our consciences tell us that when people suffer we ought to help, because those people are fellow humans; so we do. And then when we need help, they help us in return. It's part of what makes a community.

Enjoy: [Mod. edit: link redacted because posting graphic images or videos of people or animals being harmed is prohibited.]

If I can interpret and process what I'm seeing, it might upset me - and quite a bit, at that. If I can't understand clearly enough to process it, or if the processing alone is delayed or not possible for some reason, I might then feel nothing. But I can show outward signs of upset if someone says it's upsetting, while I wait to see if it sinks in for me.

I've taken first aid and CPR for adults and children. I think that, because I'd have a procedure to follow, I'd focus even in a major emergency and be fine. The sight of blood on someone who had a cut on his face after a fall didn't bother me, and I took care of him just fine, following the appropriate procedure. But even hearing about a cut on someone after a fall makes me uncomfortable in conversation.

I can't watch shows about surgery or forensics, because real people are involved. My girlfriend loves those shows, but she doesn't like drama, which I can tolerate because I know it's fictional. The actors all get up and are fine later, and I can remind myself of this if it gets too intense.

You are of course free to discuss this issue on WP but the rules prohibit the posting of graphic images or videos of people or animals being harmed.
So please; discuss it by all means - but we really don't need to see any examples of upsetting pictures or links to them.
Thanks.

Link to WP rules: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt73833.html