No Evidence That Gaze Anxiety Predicts Gaze Avoidance Behavior During Face-to-face Social Interaction

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2022 Dec 9

PMID 36494411

Authors

Daniel Tonsing

Bastian Schiller

Antonia Vehlen

Ines Spenthof

Gregor Domes

Markus Heinrichs

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Eye contact is an indispensable social signal, yet for some individuals it is also a source of discomfort they fear and avoid. However, it is still unknown whether gaze anxiety actually produces avoidant gaze behavior in naturalistic, face-to-face interactions. Here, we relied on a novel dual eye-tracking setup that allows us to assess interactive gaze behavior. To investigate the effect of gaze anxiety on gaze behavior, we a priori created groups of participants reporting high or low levels of gaze anxiety. These participants (n = 51) then performed a semi-standardized interaction with a previously unknown individual reporting a medium level of gaze anxiety. The gaze behavior of both groups did not differ in either classical one-way, eye-tracking parameters (e.g. unilateral eye gaze), or interactive, two-way ones (e.g. mutual gaze). Furthermore, the subjective ratings of both participants' interaction did not differ between groups. Gaze anxious individuals seem to exhibit normal gaze behavior which does not hamper the perceived quality of interactions in a naturalistic face-to-face setup. Our findings point to the existence of cognitive distortions in gaze anxious individuals whose exterior behavior might be less affected than feared by their interior anxiety.

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