title: Best friends: children use mutual gaze to identify friendships in others.
abstract: This study examined children's ability to use mutual eye gaze as a cue to friendships in others. In Experiment 1, following a discussion about friendship, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds were shown animations in which three cartoon children looked at one another, and were told that one target character had a best friend. Although all age groups accurately detected the mutual gaze between the target and another character, only 5- and 6-year-olds used this cue to infer friendship. Experiment 2 replicated the effect with 5- and 6-year-olds when the target character was not explicitly identified. Finally, in Experiment 3, where the attribution of friendship could only be based on synchronized mutual gaze, 6-year-olds made this attribution, while 4- and 5-year-olds did not. Children occasionally referred to mutual eye gaze when asked to justify their responses in Experiments 2 and 3, but it was only by the age of 6 that reference to these cues correlated with the use of mutual gaze in judgements of affiliation. Although younger children detected mutual gaze, it was not until 6 years of age that children reliably detected and justified mutual gaze as a cue to friendship.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK. e.nurmsoo@kent.ac.uk
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nurmsoo
authors.forename: Shiri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Einav
authors.forename: Bruce M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Hood
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology