When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync • Hacker News Board

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#21

Post by wongarsu » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 10:52 AM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #10

dougmwne wrote: post #8

A silly study? But think of the use cases! The Wristband monitors everyone's heat rate and knows the correct response to each media input. "It seems you have stopped paying attention to your targeted advertising. Shall I replay your ads now?"

I honestly will not be surprised when this comment gets turned into a start-up that gets funded... either this or the other obvious dystopian application, monitoring employees attention in meetings.

We are getting to the point where we can infer pulse rate from sufficiently good video [1]. Same for breathing. Eye tracking is well studied. So just combine all that into a single device, an AttentionScanner™ for your meeting room. This device could mark infractions to help in the yearly performance review, or help employees stay alert directly by delivering small electroshocks via their smart bracelet [2]. Contact our sales department now (/s)

1: https://spectrum.ieee.org/smartphone-camera-senses-patients-...

2: https://pavlok.com/

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#22

Post by anotheryou » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 10:53 AM UTC

So basically: story telling works; the exciting parts of stories are exciting to more than one person at a time when told in public. %)

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#23

Post by kindle-dev » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:06 AM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #13

Fake headline. This is not the usual meaning of the word “synchronize”. As many other commenters here point out, this makes the story a non-story. Strictly speaking, the headline is true in that the heart rates “synchronize”, but not the heart beats , which I would think that most people would mis-read the headline as.

Fake comment. The headline uses the word rates not beats. Not everything can be perfectly unambiguous all the time.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#24

Post by withinboredom » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:13 AM UTC

dougmwne wrote: post #20

raesene9 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly will not be surprised when this comment gets turned into a start-up that gets funded... either this or the other obvious dystopian application, monitoring employees attention in meetings.

I would be so screwed. They might as well start applying the electric shocks.

So would I. My heart rate rarely goes above 60 when sitting.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#25

Post by tuxone » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:17 AM UTC

kindle-dev wrote: post #23

teddyh wrote: post #13

Fake headline. This is not the usual meaning of the word “synchronize”. As many other commenters here point out, this makes the story a non-story. Strictly speaking, the headline is true in that the heart rates “synchronize”, but not the heart beats , which I would think that most people would mis-read the headline as.

Fake comment. The headline uses the word rates not beats. Not everything can be perfectly unambiguous all the time.

Well, still it’s not the rates that are synchronized but the rate rises and falls are.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#26

Post by wongarsu » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:27 AM UTC

tuxone wrote: post #25

kindle-dev wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fake comment. The headline uses the word rates not beats. Not everything can be perfectly unambiguous all the time.

Well, still it’s not the rates that are synchronized but the rate rises and falls are.

"Their heart rates change in unison" seems like a perfectly fine interpretation of "their heart rates are synchronized" that matches the observations. It is in fact what I expected when I read the headline. Maybe the headline could have been even more explicit, but I don't think it's intentionally deceiving.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#27

Post by Jensson » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:32 AM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #26

tuxone wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, still it’s not the rates that are synchronized but the rate rises and falls are.

"Their heart rates change in unison" seems like a perfectly fine interpretation of "their heart rates are synchronized" that matches the observations. It is in fact what I expected when I read the headline. Maybe the headline could have been even more explicit, but I don't think it's intentionally deceiving.

A headline which gives people the wrong impression is still misinformation. It makes the world less informed than before, as people rarely read articles after reading the headlines.

Edit: And it is super important to point out this misinformation in the top comment to an article, so that we can correct as many people as possible. So stating that this is misinformation isn't just some pedantic complaining, it helps correct the view of a lot of people and maybe will help make more people think a bit before writing headlines.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#28

Post by rusk » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:43 AM UTC

eurasiantiger wrote: post #5

Note that this doesn’t mean their hearts beat in sync, only that their heart rate tends to rise or fall in sync.

In fairness were it the meaning of synchronous that engineers are familiar with now that would be truly astounding.

I’m happy to accept the more liberal interpretation of the term as not all knowledge of merit need be readily appreciated by the technical eye.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#29

Post by imutemyteam » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:46 AM UTC

dougmwne wrote: post #20

raesene9 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly will not be surprised when this comment gets turned into a start-up that gets funded... either this or the other obvious dystopian application, monitoring employees attention in meetings.

I would be so screwed. They might as well start applying the electric shocks.

You Kinky.

Re: When listeners pay attention to stories, their heart rates rise and fall in sync

#30

Post by sethammons » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 11:54 AM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #26

tuxone wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, still it’s not the rates that are synchronized but the rate rises and falls are.

"Their heart rates change in unison" seems like a perfectly fine interpretation of "their heart rates are synchronized" that matches the observations. It is in fact what I expected when I read the headline. Maybe the headline could have been even more explicit, but I don't think it's intentionally deceiving.

I find your two quoted lines as vastly different. The first is accurate and the second is not. Synchronized means to happen at the same time. For a rate to be synchronized, I expect the same rate value at the same time (each person at say 65bpm). If the rate change is in sync, I expect the same rate of change value for each person (everyone is slowing their heart rate at 2bpm per minute). In unison means at the same time (but not the same value).

One headline means we are excited at the same time, the other says we mysteriously communicate the state of our heart to our neighbors.

Edit; a concrete example. Let's synchronize watches, you move yours forward quickly and I'll move mine forward quickly. Even though we moved in unison, we are not synchronized and showing the same time together.