The Impact of Social Gaze Perception on Attention

This article reviews research into the attention mechanisms underlying a critical behavior in social interactions. It discusses findings from studies that investigate social gaze as a cue to attention and considers the perceptual mechanisms that may underlie these effects and their possible social functions. There is still debate as to whether gaze stimuli are “special” in terms of the attention processes engaged. However, there is evidence for the distinctive nature of gaze cues in their involvement in other aspects of social perception such as person identity and emotional expression...

This article reviews research into the attention mechanisms underlying a critical behavior in social interactions. It discusses findings from studies that investigate social gaze as a cue to attention and considers the perceptual mechanisms that may underlie these effects and their possible social functions. There is still debate as to whether gaze stimuli are “special” in terms of the attention processes engaged. However, there is evidence for the distinctive nature of gaze cues in their involvement in other aspects of social perception such as person identity and emotional expression perception. Further, the sensitivity to another person's gaze direction varies across individuals within normal populations and in clinical populations, and these individual differences provide further insights into the key role of gaze cues in social cognition.