Only your eyes tell me what you like: Exploring the liking effect induced by other's gaze.
Our preferences are sensitive to social influences. For instance, we like more the objects that are looked-at by others than non-looked-at objects. Here, we explored this liking effect, using a modified paradigm of attention cueing by gaze. First, we investigated if the liking effect induced by gaze relied on motoric representations of the target object by testing if the liking effect could be observed for non-manipulable (alphanumeric characters) as well as for manipulable items (common tools). We found a significant liking effect for the alphanumeric items. Second, we tested if another type of powerful social cue could also induce a liking effect. We used an equivalent paradigm but with pointing hands instead of gaze cues. Pointing hands elicited a robust attention-orienting effect, but they did not induce any significant liking effect. This study extends previous findings and reinforces the view of eye gaze as a special cue in human interactions.
a Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, UMR_S 1127 and Centre MEG-EEG , Paris , France.
José Luis
JL
Ulloa
Clara
C
Marchetti
Marine
M
Taffou
Nathalie
N
George
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
Cueing; Gaze; Liking; Pointing gesture; Social attention