Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy.
PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e25608. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025608. Epub 2011 Oct 4.
Viewing a face with averted gaze results in a spatial shift of attention in the corresponding direction, a phenomenon defined as gaze-mediated orienting. In the present paper, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by social factors. Across three experiments, White and Black participants were presented with faces of White and Black individuals. A modified spatial cueing paradigm was used in which a peripheral target stimulus requiring a discrimination response was preceded by a noninformative gaze cue. Results showed that Black participants shifted attention to the averted gaze of both ingroup and outgroup faces, whereas White participants selectively shifted attention only in response to individuals of their same group. Interestingly, the modulatory effect of social factors was context-dependent and emerged only when group membership was situationally salient to participants. It was hypothesized that differences in the relative social status of the two groups might account for the observed asymmetry between White and Black participants. A final experiment ruled out an alternative explanation based on differences in perceptual familiarity with the face stimuli. Overall, these findings strengthen the idea that gaze-mediated orienting is a socially-connoted phenomenon.
观看转开视线的人脸会导致注意在相应方向上发生空间转移，这种现象被定义为眼神引导的定向。在本文中，我们研究了这种效应是否受到社会因素的影响。在三个实验中，白人和黑人参与者观看了白人和黑人的面孔。使用了一种改良的空间 cueing 范式，其中需要进行辨别反应的外围目标刺激之前会出现非信息性的眼神 cue。结果表明，黑人参与者会将注意力转移到内群体和外群体面孔的转开眼神上，而白人参与者则只选择性地在回应自己群体的成员时才转移注意力。有趣的是，社会因素的调节效应是情境依赖的，只有当群体成员身份对参与者具有情境重要性时才会出现。有人假设，两个群体之间相对社会地位的差异可能解释了观察到的白人和黑人参与者之间的不对称性。最后一个实验排除了基于对面部刺激的感知熟悉度差异的另一种解释。总的来说，这些发现加强了这样一种观点，即眼神引导的定向是一种具有社会内涵的现象。
