A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that humans, like animals, have behavioral biases that are not unique to our species. One of these biases is the visual field bias, where individuals are faster and more accurate at recognizing identities and emotions on one side of their visual field compared to the other, a trait thought to develop in early childhood.
Research on animals has shown that biases are common and beneficial, as they free up brain resources and make animals more efficient at survival tasks. Interestingly, the study found that the presence of a bias, rather than the direction (left or right), is what matters for performance.
The study suggests that aligning with the majority in terms of biases may have social advantages. Animals that align with the group during cooperative behavior are less likely to be singled out by predators. However, individuals with a reversed bias (left-handedness for motor tasks, right visual field bias for face processing) were more likely to have social difficulties and diagnoses of autism or ADHD.
While the study does not establish a causal relationship between the reversed bias and autism or ADHD, it does open the door for further research to explore if bias profiles could potentially be used as early markers for these conditions.