title: An eye for the I: Preferential attention to the eyes of ingroup members.
abstract: Human faces, and more specifically the eyes, play a crucial role in social and nonverbal communication because they signal valuable information about others. It is therefore surprising that few studies have investigated the impact of intergroup contexts and motivations on attention to the eyes of ingroup and outgroup members. Four experiments investigated differences in eye gaze to racial and novel ingroups using eye tracker technology. Whereas Studies 1 and 3 demonstrated that White participants attended more to the eyes of White compared to Black targets, Study 2 showed a similar pattern of attention to the eyes of novel ingroup and outgroup faces. Studies 3 and 4 also provided new evidence that eye gaze is flexible and can be meaningfully influenced by current motivations. Specifically, instructions to individuate specific social categories increased attention to the eyes of target group members. Furthermore, the latter experiments demonstrated that preferential attention to the eyes of ingroup members predicted important intergroup biases such as recognition of ingroup over outgroup faces (i.e., the own-race bias; Study 3) and willingness to interact with outgroup members (Study 4). The implication of these findings for general theorizing on face perception, individuation processes, and intergroup relations are discussed.
authors: Department of Psychology, York University.
authors: Kerry
authors: K
authors: Kawakami
authors: Department of Psychology, York University.
authors: Amanda
authors: A
authors: Williams
authors: Department of Psychology, York University.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Sidhu
authors: School of Psychology, University of Plymouth.
authors: Becky L
authors: BL
authors: Choma
authors: Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology of Behavior, University of Granada.
authors: Rosa
authors: R
authors: Rodriguez-Bailón
authors: Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology of Behavior, University of Granada.
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Cañadas
authors: Department of Psychology, York University.
authors: Derek
authors: D
authors: Chung
authors: Department of Psychology, Miami University.
authors: Kurt
authors: K
authors: Hugenberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005123:Eye; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult