Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Int J Psychol. 2022 Dec;57(6):743-752. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12862. Epub 2022 Jun 13.
The eye region is thought to play an important role in the ability to accurately infer others' feelings, or empathic accuracy (EA), which is an important skill for social interaction. However, most past studies used static pictures, including only visual information, and knowledge about the contribution of the eye region to EA when visual information is presented together with verbal content is lacking. We therefore examined whether eye gazing contributes to EA during videos of emotional autobiographical stories including both visual and verbal content. One hundred seven perceivers watched videos of targets talking about positive and negative life events and continuously rated the targets' feelings during the videos. Simultaneously, perceivers' eyes were tracked. After each video, perceivers reported on their feelings and the extent to which they empathized with and took the perspective of the targets. In contrast to studies using static pictures, we found that gazing to the eyes of targets during the videos did not significantly contribute to EA. At the same time, results on the association between the amount of gaze towards the eye region of targets and perceivers' state and trait empathy ratings suggest that eye gazing might signal empathy and social engagement to others.
眼部区域被认为在准确推断他人感受的能力（即共情准确性，简称 EA）方面起着重要作用，而 EA 是社交互动的重要技能。然而，大多数过往研究使用的是静态图片，仅包含视觉信息，并且缺乏关于在呈现视觉信息和口头内容时眼部区域对 EA 贡献的知识。因此，我们研究了在包含视觉和口头内容的情感自传故事视频中，眼睛注视是否有助于 EA。107 位观察者观看了目标谈论积极和消极生活事件的视频，并在观看视频的过程中持续对目标的感受进行评分。同时，还对观察者的眼睛进行了跟踪。在每个视频结束后，观察者会报告他们的感受以及他们共情和认同目标的程度。与使用静态图片的研究不同，我们发现，在观看视频时注视目标的眼睛并不能显著提高 EA。同时，关于目标的眼睛注视量与观察者的状态和特质共情评分之间关联的结果表明，眼睛注视可能向他人发出共情和社交参与的信号。
