Estimates of Impressions Based on Frequency of Blinking

Omori, Yasuko; Miyata, Yô

doi:10.2224/sbp.2001.29.2.159

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Blinking behaviour affects the impression that an actor makes on the observer; moderately‐blinking human‐like avatars are rated friendly, frequently‐blinking ones are rated nervous, and infrequently‐blinking ones are rated intelligent (Takashima et al ., ). Similar tendencies are true for humans; people who blink very often are perceived as nervous, unfriendly, or careless (Omori & Miyata, ). Interestingly, it has been claimed that Walter Mondale was rated less favourably than Roland Reagan during the TV debates of the 1984 presidential elections, because Mondale blinked very frequently (more than once per second), and made less gaze and head movements than Reagan (Patterson et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Brain responds to another person's eye blinks in a natural setting—the more empathetic the viewer the stronger the responses

Mandel

Helokunnas

Pihko

et al. 2015

Eur J of Neuroscience

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An observer's brain is known to respond to another person's small nonverbal signals, such as gaze shifts and eye blinks. Here we aimed to find out how an observer's brain reacts to a speaker's eye blinks in the presence of other audiovisual information. Magnetoencephalographic brain responses along with eye gaze were recorded from 13 adults who watched a video of a person telling a story. The video was presented first without sound (visual), then with sound (audiovisual), and finally the audio story was presented with a still-frame picture on the screen (audio control). The viewers mainly gazed at the eye region of the speaker. Their saccades were suppressed at about 180 ms after the start of the speaker's blinks, a subsequent increase of saccade occurence to the base level, or higher, at around 340 ms. The suppression occurred in visual and audiovisual conditions but not during the control audio presentation. Prominent brain responses to blinks peaked in the viewer's occipital cortex at about 250 ms, with no differences in mean peak amplitudes or latencies between visual and audiovisual conditions. During the audiovisual, but not visual-only, presentation, the responses were the stronger the more empathetic the subject was according to the Empathic Concern score of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index questionnaire (Spearman's rank correlation, 0.73). The other person's eye blinks, nonverbal signs that often go unnoticed, thus elicited clear brain responses even in the presence of attention-attracting audiovisual information from the narrative, with stronger responses in people with higher empathy scores.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Brain responds to another person's eye blinks in a natural setting—the more empathetic the viewer the stronger the responses

Mandel

Helokunnas

Pihko

et al. 2015

Eur J of Neuroscience

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“…Eye-blink behavior may have developed as a means of remote visual communication. The observation that the blink rate affects the formation of a person's impression in humans is a suggestive example of eye-blinking as a social communication tool [66]. This hypothesis may also be indirectly supported by the “colorful” primates [67].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye-Blink Behaviors in 71 Species of Primates

et al. 2013

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The present study was performed to investigate the associations between eye-blink behaviors and various other factors in primates. We video-recorded 141 individuals across 71 primate species and analyzed the blink rate, blink duration, and “isolated” blink ratio (i.e., blinks without eye or head movement) in relation to activity rhythms, habitat types, group size, and body size factors. The results showed close relationships between three types of eye-blink measures and body size factors. All of these measures increased as a function of body weight. In addition, diurnal primates showed more blinks than nocturnal species even after controlling for body size factors. The most important findings were the relationships between eye-blink behaviors and social factors, e.g., group size. Among diurnal primates, only the blink rate was significantly correlated even after controlling for body size factors. The blink rate increased as the group size increased. Enlargement of the neocortex is strongly correlated with group size in primate species and considered strong evidence for the social brain hypothesis. Our results suggest that spontaneous eye-blinks have acquired a role in social communication, similar to grooming, to adapt to complex social living during primate evolution.

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“…Results from behavioral studies support the idea that observed blinks are not ignored. Very frequent blinkers are more likely to be rated as nervous or careless, whereas both very infrequent and frequent blinkers are rated as “unfriendly” (Omori and Miyata, 2001 ). In addition, political candidates with low blink rates are rated less favorably than those with normal blink frequencies (Patterson et al, 1992 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In the Blink of an Eye: Neural Responses Elicited to Viewing the Eye Blinks of Another Individual

Brefczynski-Lewis

Berrebi

McNeely

et al. 2011

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Facial movements have the potential to be powerful social signals. Previous studies have shown that eye gaze changes and simple mouth movements can elicit robust neural responses, which can be altered as a function of potential social significance. Eye blinks are frequent events and are usually not deliberately communicative, yet blink rate is known to influence social perception. Here, we studied event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited to observing non-task relevant blinks, eye closure, and eye gaze changes in a centrally presented natural face stimulus. Our first hypothesis (H1) that blinks would produce robust ERPs (N170 and later ERP components) was validated, suggesting that the brain may register and process all types of eye movement for potential social relevance. We also predicted an amplitude gradient for ERPs as a function of gaze change, relative to eye closure and then blinks (H2). H2 was only partly validated: large temporo-occipital N170s to all eye change conditions were observed and did not significantly differ between blinks and other conditions. However, blinks elicited late ERPs that, although robust, were significantly smaller relative to gaze conditions. Our data indicate that small and task-irrelevant facial movements such as blinks are measurably registered by the observer's brain. This finding is suggestive of the potential social significance of blinks which, in turn, has implications for the study of social cognition and use of real-life social scenarios.

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Estimates of Impressions Based on Frequency of Blinking

Cited by 17 publications

References 20 publications

Brain responds to another person's eye blinks in a natural setting—the more empathetic the viewer the stronger the responses

Brain responds to another person's eye blinks in a natural setting—the more empathetic the viewer the stronger the responses

Eye-Blink Behaviors in 71 Species of Primates

In the Blink of an Eye: Neural Responses Elicited to Viewing the Eye Blinks of Another Individual

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