Cross-cultural asymmetries in oculomotor interference elicited by gaze distractors belonging to Asian and White faces

Cultural differences in joint attention and engagement in mutual gaze with a robot face

Joint attention is a pivotal mechanism underlying human ability to interact with one another. The fundamental nature of joint attention in the context of social cognition has led researchers to develop tasks that address this mechanism and operationalize it in a laboratory setting, in the form of a gaze cueing paradigm. In the present study, we addressed the question of whether engaging in joint attention with a robot face is culture-specific. We adapted a classical gaze-cueing paradigm such that a robot avatar cued participants' gaze subsequent to either engaging participants in eye contact or not. Our critical question of interest was whether the gaze cueing effect (GCE) is stable across different cultures, especially if cognitive resources to exert top-down control are reduced. To achieve the latter, we introduced a mathematical stress task orthogonally to the gaze cueing protocol. Results showed larger GCE in the Singapore sample, relative to the Italian sample, independent of gaze type (eye contact vs. no eye contact) or amount of experienced stress, which translates to available cognitive resources. Moreover, since after each block, participants rated how engaged they felt with the robot avatar during the task, we observed that Italian participants rated as more engaging the avatar during the eye contact blocks, relative to no eye contact while Singaporean participants did not show any difference in engagement relative to the gaze. We discuss the results in terms of cultural differences in robot-induced joint attention, and engagement in eye contact, as well as the dissociation between implicit and explicit measures related to processing of gaze.

Exploring the Social Environment with the Eyes: A Review of the Impact of Facial Stimuli on Saccadic Trajectories

Eye movement parameters can be highly informative regarding how people explore the social environment around them. This theoretical review examines how human faces and their features (e.g., eye-gaze direction, emotional expressions) can modulate saccadic trajectories. In the first part, studies in which facial stimuli were presented in a central location, such as during a face-to-face social interaction, are illustrated. The second part focuses on studies in which facial stimuli were placed in the periphery. Together, these works confirm the presence of an intriguing link between eye movements and facial processing, and invite consideration of saccadic trajectories as a useful (and still underused) opportunity to track ongoing mechanisms that support the social vision. Some directions for future research are also discussed.

Tuning social modulations of gaze cueing via contextual factors

Gaze cueing reflects the tendency to shift attention toward a location cued by the averted gaze of others. This effect does not fulfill criteria for strong automaticity because its magnitude is sensitive to the manipulation of different social features. Recent theoretical perspectives suggest that social modulations of gaze cueing could further critically depend on contextual factors. In this study, we tested this idea, relying on previous evidence showing that Chinese participants are more sensitive to gazes on White than on Asian faces, likely as a consequence of differences in perceived social status. We replicated this effect when we made group membership salient by presenting faces belonging to the different ethnicities in the same block. In contrast, when faces belonging to different ethnicities were presented in separate blocks, a similar gaze-cueing effect was noted, likely because no social comparison processes were activated. These findings are consistent with the idea that social modulations are not rigid but are tuned by contextual factors.

Increased gaze cueing of attention during COVID-19 lockdown

Affiliation with others is a basic human need. The lockdown implemented for counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic has determined an unprecedented situation of social deprivation, forcing individuals to dramatically reduce face-to-face interactions. This, in turn, has caused relevant consequences on psychological well-being. However, the impact of lockdown-related social isolation on basic cognitive processes is still largely unknown. Here, we focus on social attention and address gaze cueing, namely the ability to shift attention in response to the gaze of others. This is a hard-wired cognitive mechanism critically supporting the establishment of social interactions and pervasive relationships among individuals. Our results show a stronger gaze-cueing effect during, rather than after, the lockdown, whose magnitude was positively correlated with social isolation distress. These findings indicate that, in a condition of prolonged social deprivation, orienting of attention may be shaped by hypersensitivity to social cues, likely due to the strive to reconnect with others.

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The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on cognitive processes is still largely unexplored

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We focus on gaze cueing of attention as a building block of social interaction

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Gaze cueing was larger during the lockdown than after the lockdown

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Social deprivation is associated with increased sensitivity to the eyes of others