Affective evaluations of objects are influenced by observed gaze direction and emotional expression☆

Abstract

Gaze direction signals another person's focus of interest. Facial expressions convey information about their mental state. Appropriate responses to these signals should reflect their combined influence, yet current evidence suggests that gaze-cueing effects for objects near an observed face are not modulated by its emotional expression. Here, we extend the investigation of perceived gaze direction and emotional expression by considering their combined influence on affective judgments. While traditional response-time measures revealed equal gaze-cueing effects for happy and disgust faces, affective evaluations critically depended on the combined product of gaze and emotion. Target objects looked at with a happy expression were liked more than objects looked at with a disgust expression. Objects not looked at were rated equally for both expressions. Our results demonstrate that facial expression does modulate the way that observers utilize gaze cues: Objects attended by others are evaluated according to the valence of their facial expression.

Liking products by the head of a dog: Perceived orientation of attention induces valence acquisition

“…These studies all involved evaluative measures of stimuli previously associated with human faces whose eye gaze orientation toward stimuli varied. Two of these studies found better liking of objects previously associated with an eye gaze directed at them (Bayliss, Paul, Cannon & Tipper, 2006), an effect that vanished when eyes were replaced by arrows as orienting stimuli (Bayliss et al, 2006) or when the faces looked disgusted (Bayliss, Frischen, Fenske & Tipper, 2007). However, these studies relied on explicit evaluative ratings of the objects.…”

Eye-gaze and arrow cues influence elementary sound perception

“…Because gaze and facial expressions are processed reflexively [8,21] and integratively [22,23], we performed a third experiment to determine whether facial affect could enhance cued influences on perception.…”

Viewing another person's eye movements improves identification of pulmonary nodules in chest x-ray inspection.

“…For example, the emotional expression of the person being watched is often taken into account when using normal gaze as a predictive cue (Bayliss, Frischen, Fenske, & Tipper, 2007) or when determining mutual gaze (Lobmaier, Tiddeman, & Perret, 2008). Although this information is absent when using artificial gaze, this method does provide an opportunity to look at more complex gaze sequences rather than simple directional processes.…”