Our opinions are affected1 by what our eyes are focusing on in the same instant we make moral decisions. Researchers at Lund University and other institutions have managed to influence peoples responses to questions such as is murder defensible by tracking their eye movements. When the participants had looked at a randomly2 pre-selected response long enough, they were asked for an immediate3 answer. Fifty-eight per cent chose that answer as their moral position. The study shows that our moral decisions can be influenced by what we are looking at when we make the decision. Using a new experimental method, the researchers tracked participants eye movements and demanded an answer when their eye rested on a randomly pre-selected answer.The researchers, from the Division of Cognitive4 Science at Lund University, University College London and the University of California, Merced, studied in real time how people deliberate with themselves in difficult moral dilemmas5. The participants had no idea that the researchers were carefully monitoring how their gaze moved in order to demand an answer at the right moment. The results showed that the responses were systematically6 influenced by what the eye saw at the moment an answer was demanded.In this study we have seen that timing7 has a strong influence on the moral choices we make. The processes that lead to a moral decision are reflected in our gaze. However, what our eyes rest on when a decision is taken also affects our choice, explained Philip Prnamets, cognitive scientist at Lund University and one of the authors of the study.The study is the first to demonstrate a connection between gaze and moral choices, but it is based on previous studies which have shown that for simpler choices, such as choosing between two dishes on a menu, our eye movements say what we will eat for dinner before we have really decided8.What is new is that we have demonstrated that if eye movements are tracked moment by moment, it is possible to track the persons decision-making process and steer9 it in a pre-determined direction, said Petter Johansson, a reader in cognitive science at Lund University.The thought process needed to reach a moral position is thus interlinked with the process of viewing the world.Today, all sorts of sensors10 are built into mobile phones, and they can even track your eye movements, said Daniel Richardson, director of the Eye Think Lab at UCL. By documenting small changes in our behaviour, our mobiles could help us reach a decision in a way that has not been possible before.
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1 affected adj.不自然的，假装的 参考例句： She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对大家的课题感到兴趣。 His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
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