Human Information Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Psychophysiology. 2020 Jun;57(6):e13587. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13587. Epub 2020 Apr 22.
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.
他人的注视会引起自身的自主唤醒和面部反应，表明观察者对其有积极的情感。这些影响仅在相互的、实时的眼神接触中发生，而不是在直接注视图片或观察者认为实时的人看不到他们时发生。问题仍然是，对于这些影响，他人的实际存在是否是必要的。我们在三种条件下测量了另一个人直接注视和回避注视的心理生理反应：实时互动、双向视频通话和仅仅观看视频。自主唤醒通过皮肤电导率反应来测量，面部反应通过面部肌电图来测量。在实时和视频通话条件下，但在仅仅观看视频条件下，与回避注视相比，直接注视会增加自主唤醒。然而，在所有三种情况下，直接注视都会引起积极的情感面部反应。因此，被看到的体验对于自主反应是必要的，但对于另一个人的直接注视引起的面部反应则不是必要的。最重要的是，这些结果表明，对于这些对视的心理生理反应，他人的实际存在或接近并不是必要的。
