Department of Psychology, Rikkyo University, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan.
Biol Psychol. 2012 Jan;89(1):112-6. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.015. Epub 2011 Oct 5.
Eye contact is important to share communication during social interactions. However, how accurately humans can perceive the gaze direction of others toward themselves and whether pupils dilate when humans consciously or unconsciously perceive own eyes are looked by others remain unclear. In this study, we examined the relationship between the explicit perception of looking into each other's eyes and the implicit physiological response of pupillary dilation by using an original face-to-face method. We found that humans do not correctly detect the gaze direction of others. Furthermore, one's pupils dilated when one gazed at others' eyes. Awareness of others' gaze on one's eyes, rather than the actual focusing of other's gaze on one's eyes, enhanced pupillary dilation. Therefore, physiological responses are caused not when people actually look into each other's gaze, but when the consciousness of other's gaze is activated, which suggests that eye contact often involves one-way communication.
眼神交流在社交互动中对于分享信息至关重要。然而，人类对于他人注视自己的目光方向的感知准确性，以及人类在有意识或无意识地意识到自己的眼睛被他人注视时瞳孔是否扩张，目前仍不清楚。在这项研究中，我们通过一种新颖的面对面方法，检验了明确感知到相互注视与瞳孔扩张的隐含生理反应之间的关系。我们发现，人类无法正确地检测到他人的目光方向。此外，当一个人注视他人的眼睛时，他们的瞳孔会扩张。对他人注视自己眼睛的意识，而不是他人的目光实际聚焦在自己的眼睛上，会增强瞳孔的扩张。因此，生理反应不是在人们真正对视时产生的，而是在他人的目光意识被激活时产生的，这表明眼神交流通常涉及单向沟通。
