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Psychophysiological responses to eye contact in a live interaction and in video call
Author(s) -
Hietanen Jonne O.,
Peltola Mikko J.,
Hietanen Jari K.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/psyp.13587
Subject(s) - gaze , psychology , arousal , facial electromyography , eye contact , facial expression , skin conductance , affect (linguistics) , cognitive psychology , psychophysiology , eye tracking , communication , social psychology , neuroscience , computer vision , medicine , computer science , psychoanalysis , biomedical engineering
Another person's gaze directed to oneself elicits autonomic arousal and facial reactions indicating positive affect in its observer. These effects have only been found to occur with mutual, live eye contact and not in response to direct gaze pictures or when the observer believes that the live person cannot see them. The question remains whether the physical presence of the other person is necessary for these effects. We measured psychophysiological responses to another person's direct versus averted gaze in three conditions: live interaction, bidirectional video call, and watching a mere video. Autonomic arousal was measured with skin conductance responses and facial reactions with facial electromyography. In the live and video call conditions, but not in the mere video condition, direct gaze increased autonomic arousal in comparison to averted gaze. In all three conditions, however, direct gaze elicited positive affective facial reactions. Therefore, an experience of being seen is essential for the autonomic reactions but not for the facial responses that are elicited by another person's direct gaze. Most importantly, the results suggest that the physical presence or proximity of the other person is not necessary for these psychophysiological responses to eye contact.