title: The Eyes Are the Windows to the Mind: Direct Eye Gaze Triggers the Ascription of Others' Minds.
abstract: Eye gaze is a potent source of social information with direct eye gaze signaling the desire to approach and averted eye gaze signaling avoidance. In the current work, we proposed that eye gaze signals whether or not to impute minds into others. Across four studies, we manipulated targets' eye gaze (i.e., direct vs. averted eye gaze) and measured explicit mind ascriptions (Study 1a, Study 1b, and Study 2) and beliefs about the likelihood of targets having mind (Study 3). In all four studies, we find novel evidence that the ascription of sophisticated humanlike minds to others is signaled by the display of direct eye gaze relative to averted eye gaze. Moreover, we provide evidence suggesting that this differential mentalization is due, at least in part, to beliefs that direct gaze targets are more likely to instigate social interaction. In short, eye contact triggers mind perception.
authors.affiliation: Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Saara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.affiliation: Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA deskajc@miamioh.edu.
authors.forename: Jason C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Deska
authors.affiliation: Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hugenberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: eye gaze; face perception; mind perception; person perception