Can pupil size be used to "read" a person's intentions and feelings? According to Men's Health magazine a man can tell when it is "time to make your move" by watching his date's pupils, but some skepticism is warranted.
Other efforts to exploit pupil dilations for purposes beyond scientific research have failed. During the Cold War, Canadian government officials tried to develop a device they called the " fruit machine " to detect homosexuality among civil service employees by measuring how the pupils in their eyes responded to racy images of women and men.
The machine, which never worked, was to aid the government's purge of gay men and lesbians from the civil service and thereby purportedly reduce vulnerability to Soviet blackmail. A pupil test for sexual orientation remains as unlikely as it was in the s.
Researchers at Cornell University recently showed that sexual orientation correlated with pupil dilation to erotic videos of their preferred gender, but only on average and only for male subjects. Pupillometry also became popular in the advertising industry during the s as a way to test consumers' responses to television commercials, says Jagdish Sheth , a marketing professor at Emory University.
But the practice was eventually abandoned. Despite these limitations, pupillometry is a valuable tool for psychological research, says Pittsburgh's Steinhauer, because our eyes are easy to observe as well as provide a sensitive indicator of cognitive, emotional and sensory response.
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In some cases, pupils unable to constrict normally can indicate a pathological condition leading to serious visual impairment. While there are a wide variety of medical conditions that can cause constricted pupils, it is also a sign of drug use specifically opiods in some cases.
Some non-opiate medications can also cause constricted pupils. Medications such as antidepressants and drugs used to treat hypertension high blood pressure have been known to cause constricted pupils.
Constricted pupils can serve as a preliminary warning of suspected drug use during pre-employment, random, and post-incident drug screen testing. However, constricted pupils alone are not enough to prove drug use because of the wide variety of underlying issues that could cause constricted pupils. By: Elly McGuinness. By: Jennifer Crump.
Dictionary Dictionary Term of the Day. Workplace Testing Terms. If there is no environmental or emotional cause associated with pinpoint pupils, another underlying cause could make your pupils change size and stay there. Unfortunately, several of these can indicate health problems or danger. If any medications you take are suspected of causing changes to your pupils, this should trigger an immediate review of all the medications you take and whether any one, or any combination, is harming you.
Toxins: Some types of insecticides, herbicides, and nerve agents can cause pinpoint pupils. You may not realize you have been exposed to such a high dose of these chemicals due to cognitive side effects, but pupil size can be an indicator for medical professionals. Diseases: Infections that damage the iris, or the middle part of your eye, can cause your pupil to constrict.
This condition is called anterior uveitis. These diseases are associated with miosis:. Your pupils will change size in different lighting conditions, allowing different amounts of light onto your retina so you can still see.
Whether it is a bright summer day or you are in a dimly lit restaurant, healthy eyes will adjust to these conditions.
There are other factors that can influence the size of your pupils too. The muscles in your iris pull your pupil closed or allow it to open for several normal, healthy reasons. You could have pinpoint pupils, or miosis , because of several conditions. For example, you could be in bright light, so your pupils will be smaller.
They may constrict if you look at something far away, or they could become smaller because of an emotional response. These are temporary responses, and miosis will adjust as conditions around you change. Pupils that are less than two millimeters are pinpoint pupils, or miosis. Pinpoint pupils can also indicate that something is wrong with your health.
You may be on a drug that constricts your pupils too much; you may have a nerve or head injury ; or there could be a problem inside your eye. Pinpoint pupils on their own are not inherently dangerous, although you could have a hard time seeing in normal light if you take a medication with miosis as a side effect.
However, pinpoint pupils can indicate an underlying problem that could be very serious. For example, a drug overdose or a brain injury can be diagnosed, in part, by the size of your pupils.
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