Emotions in Audience Decision Making 319emotional or a neutral way. Although both sexes detected non-emotional acoustic changes in
the speaker’s voice, only the women in the study detected changes in the speaker’s emotional
tone.^100
However, neither male nor female readers can perceive emotionally signifi cant written wordsunless they fi xate on them. An eye-tracking study found no evidence of semantic processing of
either emotional words (sex-related, threat-related, or curse words) or neutral words that were
outside readers’ foveal vision but within their peripheral vision. In addition, the study found that
readers’ pupil size did not increase when they were presented with emotional words peripherally,
again indicating a lack of emotional response.^101
Attention to Emotionally Signifi cant Stimuli
Audiences selectively attend to emotionally signifi cant stimuli. When a neutral and an emotionally
signifi cant picture are simultaneously projected into viewers’ eyes, viewers give the emotionally
signifi cant picture preferential processing.^102 Viewers are also more likely to fi xate fi rst on either
pleasant or unpleasant emotional images than on neutral ones.^103
Emotionally signifi cant stimuli capture the audience’s attention^104 even when the emotionalstimuli are presented simultaneously with a number of different neutral stimuli that should oth-
erwise distract them.^105 For example, fear-relevant stimuli (e.g., a picture of a snake or a spider)
“pop out” of visual displays regardless of the number of neutral objects in the display.^106 An
angry face among many neutral faces also yields a pop-out effect.^107 Interestingly, the number
of neutral images in a display does not infl uence the time takes to detect a fear-relevant stimulus
within that display.^108
In addition to quickly popping out, emotionally signifi cant stimuli capture the audience’sattention for longer periods of time. Viewers explore emotionally signifi cant pictures longer and
more extensively than neutral ones.^109 Readers maintain their attention longer on any location
where an emotionally signifi cant word has been presented.^110 Emotionally signifi cant messages
also elicit sustained attention and processing from the audience.^111 In a study of spoken messages,
audience members listened to neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant verbal messages that each lasted
two minutes. Changes in the diameter of their pupils before, during, and after each message
was spoken were monitored continuously. Dilation of the audience members’ pupils indicated
they spent more time attending to and processing the pleasant and unpleasant messages than the
neutral ones.^112
Pupil size also increases when audiences view images that have an emotional signifi cance tothem.^113 For example, in one study, male viewers showed the greatest change in pupil size in
response to a picture of a nude female. Female viewers, on the other hand, showed the greatest
change in response to a picture of a mother holding a young child. In a similar study, viewers
examined a series of pictures related to different emotionally signifi cant themes (e.g., disease). The
size of the viewers’ pupils differed for each theme presented.^114
Another indicator that an emotionally signifi cant stimulus has captured the audience’sattention is the orienting response.^115 The orienting response is associated with the emotion
of surprise. When audience members are surprised, they stop whatever behavior they were
engaged in and give their full attention to the stimulus.^116 The orienting response also elicits
anticipation and a readiness to respond physically.^117 Although the orienting response to an
intensely emotional stimulus is automatic, it can be overridden if the stimulus is only a mildly
emotional one.^118
The audience’s attentional biases are strongest for stimuli that are most closely related to theirgoals and values.^119 For example, expert bird watchers display a selective attentional bias toward