title: Eye contact and arousal: the effects of stimulus duration.
abstract: The present study investigated the effect of stimulus duration on skin conductance responses (SCRs) evoked by different gaze directions of a live person. In two separate parts of the experiment, either two fixed stimulus durations (2s and 5s) or a participant-controlled stimulus duration was used. The results showed that the eye contact evoked enhanced SCRs compared to averted gaze or closed eyes conditions irrespective of the presentation time. Subjective evaluations of approach-avoidance-tendencies indicated that the direct gaze elicited either approach or avoidance, depending on the participant. Participants who had evaluated a direct gaze-condition as approachable were found to be more emotionally stabile than those who had evaluated the same condition as avoidable. In the self-timing condition, averted gaze was looked at longer than direct gaze. Our results suggest that direct gaze, also when encountered only briefly like in every-day social encounterings, increases autonomic sympathetic arousal.
authors.affiliation: Human Information Processing Laboratory, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland. terhi.helminen@uta.fi
authors.forename: Terhi M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Helminen
authors.forename: Suvi M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kaasinen
authors.forename: Jari K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hietanen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult