Perceived intent drives gaze interpretation

Important social information can be extracted from the eyes and gaze of others, such as intentions, states of mind, and the locus of attention. Research investigating people's ability to interpret social signals has largely focused on the featural properties of the stimuli (e.g., where or how someone looks) and not on the social intent behind those eye movements. To explore this gap, participants were shown eye movement recordings of individuals ("hiders") selecting hiding locations on a 3 × 3 computer grid. One group of participants was told that these eye movements were from a foe who did not want participants to discover their hiding location (Group Foe). A second group was told that the eye movements were from a friend who wanted participants to discover their hiding location (Group Friend). In fact, both groups saw deceptive (foe) and cooperative (friend) eye movements. When the intent of the hider aligned with participants' beliefs about that hider-for instance, the hider was acting for a friend and the participants believed the hider was friendly-participants were more likely to correctly select hiders' locations. Further, participants' belief of the hider's intent had a greater impact on interpretation than featural differences in deceptive and cooperative eye movements. The present study reveals that beliefs about someone's gaze can play a greater role in performance outcomes than any actual changes in the gaze itself. It provides a rigorous and novel paradigm to investigate the complex interaction between the intent of social signals and how those signals are interpreted.