Affective Priming by Eye Gaze Stimuli: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

Abstract

The present study employed the affective priming paradigm and measurements of event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate implicit affective reactions elicited by gaze stimuli. Participants categorized positive and negative words primed by direct gaze, averted gaze and closed eyes. The behavioral response time (RT) results indicated that direct gaze implicitly elicited more positive affective reactions than did closed eyes. Analyses of the ERP responses to the target words revealed a priming effect on the N170 and an interaction on late positive potential (LPP) responses, and congruently with the behavioral results, suggested that, compared to closed eyes, direct gaze was affectively more congruent with positive words and more incongruent with negative words. The priming effect on the N170 response indicated that gaze stimuli influenced the subsequent affective word processing at an early stage of information processing. In conclusion, the present behavioral and electrophysiological evidence suggests that direct gaze automatically activates more positive affective reactions than closed eyes.

Modulation of the eyeblink and cardiac startle reflexes by genuine eye contact

“…Therefore, the present psychophysiological results are interpreted to indicate that direct gaze, relative to downward gaze, is automatically perceived as a more positive social signal, thus attenuating the startle reflex to intense sound stimuli. These results and conclusions are in line with those from our previous studies using the affective priming paradigm (Chen, Helminen, & Hietanen, 2017;Chen, Peltola et al, 2016).…”

“…These findings are in accord with previous studies showing that live faces with direct gaze were evaluated as less positive and more arousing than those with averted gaze and closed eyes (Hietanen et al, 2008;P€ onkänen, Alhoniemi et al, 2011). Thus, compatible with previous studies (Chen, Helminen, & Hietanen, 2017;Chen, Peltola et al, 2016), the present results also showed that implicit (physiological) and explicit (self-evaluative) affective responses to another's gaze direction may not always be fully concordant.…”

“…Previous laboratory-based experiments have attempted to minimize and control the effects of contextual social factors, but they have also reported somewhat inconsistent findings regarding the affective evaluation elicited by direct gaze. For example, studies measuring self-reported affective responses to eye gaze have reported less positive evaluations to direct gaze versus averted gaze and closed eyes, both when showing pictures of animated faces as well as faces of real people as stimuli (Chen, Helminen, & Hietanen, 2017;Chen, Peltola, Ranta, & Hietanen, 2016;Hietanen, Leppänen, Peltola, Linna-aho, & Ruuhiala, 2008;P€ onkänen, Alhoniemi, Leppänen, & Hietanen, 2011). On the other hand, other studies have shown that faces with direct gaze are evaluated as more likable, and elicit more positive feelings than faces with averted gaze (Kuzmanovic et al, 2009;Mason, Tatkow, & Macrae, 2005;Wirth, Sacco, Hugenberg, & Williams, 2010).…”

Your attention makes me smile: Direct gaze elicits affiliative facial expressions

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show specifically the effect of another person's gaze direction on a perceiver's facial EMG responses. Considering that zygomatic responses have been associated with the occurrence of positive emotional reactions (Dimberg, 1990;Larsen et al, 2003;Tassinary & Cacioppo, 1992), the results can be interpreted to be compatible with previous studies employing implicit and explicit behavioral measures and reporting that direct gaze stimuli elicit more positive reactions than averted gaze or closed eyes stimuli (Chen et al, 2016;Chen, Helminen, et al, 2017;Chen, Peltola et al, 2017;Kuzmanovic et al, 2009;Lawson, 2015;Mason et al, 2005). As noted above, the zygomatic responses to another's direct vs. averted gaze were greater both when the participant was looking at the model and when the participant's own gaze was slightly turned away from the model.…”

“…Compatible with these considerations, previous research has Running head: AFFILIATIVE EYE CONTACT 4 shown, for example, that seeing another person with direct as compared to averted gaze elicits increased electroencephalographic, relative left-sided frontal alpha activity associated with positive affect and motivational approach tendency (Hietanen, Leppänen, Peltola, Linna-aho, & Ruuhiala, 2008;Pönkänen, Peltola, & Hietanen, 2011). Two recent studies employing the affective priming paradigm indicated that more positive affective reactions were automatically activated by perception of direct gaze compared to perception of closed eyes (Chen, Helminen, & Hietanen, 2017;Chen, Peltola, Ranta, & Hietanen, 2016), and a study relying on the implicit association paradigm showed a robust preference for faces looking towards as compared to faces looking away (Lawson, 2015). Most recently, a study employing the startle reflex methodology reported that the magnitudes of participants' eyeblink startle and cardiac reflexes elicited by high-intensity noise stimuli were modulated by simultaneously presented gaze direction stimuli (Chen, Peltola, Dunn, Pajunen, & Hietanen, 2017).…”