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Published on: November 30, 2018
Gaze cues (repeatedly) fail to influence person evaluation
Samantha E A Gregory1, Vilma Pullinen2, Margaret C Jackson2
1School of Health and Society, University of Salford, Salford, UK.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|March 29, 2025
Summary
Joint attention, where eyes follow gaze, does not increase liking or trust for faces. This study found no evidence that being jointly attended to, compared to being ignored, affects social or attentional value of faces.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Eye gaze is a powerful social cue, initiating joint attention and influencing object processing, memory, and immediate value judgments.
- Joint attention, the shared focus on an object or person, typically enhances its perceived value and processing efficiency.
- Previous research has primarily focused on the effects of joint attention on object perception, with less known about its impact on social and attentional value of faces.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if jointly attending to faces enhances their longer-term social value (liking, trust) and attentional value (attention allocation, prioritization).
- To determine if the gaze-cuing paradigm can induce differential value for faces based on whether they are jointly attended or ignored.
- To explore potential implicit effects of gaze-induced value on subsequent attentional engagement with faces.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a gaze-cuing paradigm where a central cue face directed attention towards or away from a target face.
- Manipulated target faces to be either consistently jointly attended (high value) or consistently ignored (low value) across 8 experiments.
- Assessed social judgments (liking, trust) and attentional value (dot probe task) following the gaze manipulation.
Main Results:
- A mini meta-analysis confirmed no significant difference in social value (liking, trust) between jointly attended and ignored faces (N=214).
- No significant effect was found on attentional value, including attention allocation and prioritization, for faces that were jointly attended versus ignored (N=77).
- The study found no evidence that joint attention influences the longer-term social or attentional value of faces.
Conclusions:
- Contrary to findings with objects, joint attention does not appear to enhance the social or attentional value of faces.
- Faces may be processed differently than objects in the context of joint attention and value attribution.
- Further research is needed to understand the specific mechanisms underlying face perception and social value in relation to gaze cues.
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