Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 88, Issue 1, September 2011, Pages 124-130
Biological Psychology

Eye contact and arousal: The effects of stimulus duration

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.07.002Get rights and content

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 (2 s and 5 s) 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.

Highlights

► We studied skin conductance responses (SCR) to different gaze conditions. ► Eye contact evoked enhanced SCRs compared to averted gaze or closed eyes. ► This result applied both for short (2 s) and long (5 s) stimulus presentation times. ► In a self-timing condition, averted gaze was looked at longer than direct gaze. ► Direct gaze was approachable for those scoring high on emotional stability.

Section snippets

Eye contact and arousal: the effects of stimulus duration

“Under optimal conditions of interpersonal encounter, the gaze of the other may be experienced as streaming into my whole being - I am filled out and irradiated by it” (Heron, 1970). The quotation from Heron (1970) describes very well how powerful stimulus a direct gaze is for human beings. The importance of the direct eye gaze is reflected, for example, in the special effects direct gaze imposes on attention and other cognitive processes. For example, people are faster to detect a face with a

Participants

The participants were 33 adults (18 females, mean age 22.8 years, range 19–43) who gained a course credit for participation. The participants had normal or corrected-to-normal sight. Informed and written consent was obtained from each participant.

Data from one male participant were discarded from all the analyses because of technical problems in recordings. Additionally, two (one female) participants were discarded from the analysis of part 1 and four participants (one female) were discarded

Part 1 (fixed stimulus duration)

A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA, repeated measures) was performed on the SCR data, having Gaze (direct, averted, eyes closed) and presentation time (2000 ms, 5000 ms) as independent variables. The ANOVA indicated a main effect of Gaze, F(2, 58) = 17.1, p < .001, ηp2=.371, ɛ = .775. There was no significant main effect of presentation time, and the interaction between Gaze and presentation time was not significant either. Pairwise comparisons (LSD) showed that the SCR for direct gaze (M = 0.37 μS)

Discussion

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate, first, the effects of gaze direction on autonomic arousal and, second, whether the length of the stimulus presentation has an influence on the autonomic arousal. A special feature of the present experiment was that, like in our previous study (Hietanen et al., 2008), we used a live person as a stimulus. In part 1 of the experiment, two different stimulus durations (2 s and 5 s) were presented in two separate blocks. We anticipated that as

Funding

This study was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (T.M.H.) and the Academy of Finland (J.K.H., project no. #130272).

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