Daily HealthBeat Tip

Sex, gore, and paying attention

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

When there's sex and gore, people apparently have trouble thinking about other stuff.

Researchers looked into that by having people look at sexy, gory and neutral pictures and try to pick out some neutral pictures shown at weird angles. The study supported by the National Institutes of Health is in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

When a sexy or gory shot preceded a neutral picture, people kind of blinked out the neutral shot they were looking for

Researcher David Zald of Vanderbilt University says that's good to know if you see an accident while driving:

"You may get so focused on that accident that you fail to see something in front of you. Be prepared to slow down and give yourself that extra space." (10 seconds)

Zald says it could be similar if you see a sexy billboard.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October 4, 2005

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