The links between direct gaze and social cognition - implications for impression accuracy and joint attention

Human eyes are hypothesized to play a critical role in social cognition, but this hypothesis has yet to be tested concretely in naturalistic settings. This study investigated how direct gaze (i.e., looking someone in their eyes) during live interactions contributes to impression formation and subsequent social cognition processes. Participants were invited to interact with confederates acting as impression targets (e.g., four different people, one at a time), rated each target's personality after the interaction, and then completed a gaze-cuing procedure as a measure of joint attention. Our research questions were (1) whether direct gaze occurrence varies as a function of eyes' visibility, (2) whether such variations meaningfully relate to impression accuracy, and (3) whether they additionally modulate subsequent joint attention. Results show that participants mainly looked at the targets' eyes during the interaction, particularly when their eyes were visible. Additionally, direct gaze showed limited abilities to predict impression accuracy but preliminary links with joint attention. Integrating theories and methods from both social cognitive psychology and personality psychology, this research shows the concrete importance of the social information conveyed by eyes in our everyday lives.