Attention to eye contact in the West and East: autonomic responses and evaluative ratings.
Attention to eye contact in the West and East: autonomic responses and evaluative ratings.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0059312
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Hietanen JK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Akechi H;Senju A;Uibo H;Kikuchi Y;Hasegawa T;Hietanen JK
眼神交流在人类社会交往中起着至关重要的作用。人类眼睛的特殊外观(即白色巩膜与彩色虹膜形成对比)意味着通过眼神接触来检测另一个人的脸的重要性。经验研究表明，进行眼神接触的面孔被快速检测并优先处理(即眼神接触效应)。这种对眼神交流的敏感似乎是人类与生俱来的，在人类中是普遍存在的；然而，几项研究表明，文化规范会影响眼神交流行为。例如，日本人比西欧或北美文化的人表现出更少的眼神交流。然而，文化如何调节眼神交流行为尚不清楚。本研究考察了自主神经与注意定向(即心率)和注视时间之间的文化差异。此外，我们还检查了西欧(芬兰)和东亚(日本)文化参与者之间与另一个真人的眼神交流的评价性评级，显示出情感中立的表达。我们的结果表明，在两种文化中，与回避凝视相比，眼神接触引发了更强的心率减速反应(即注意力定向)，更短的注视时间，以及更高的主观唤醒感觉评级。取而代之的是，眼神接触效应的文化差异被观察到在关于刺激面孔的各种评价反应中(例如，面部情绪、可亲和性等)。评分结果显示，与西欧文化的人相比，东亚文化的人在进行眼神交流时，认为他人的脸更愤怒、更难接近、更令人不快。评级结果还显示，凝视方向(直接和回避)会影响对另一个人面部情感和性格的看法。这些结果表明，眼神接触行为的文化差异来自不同的展示规则和文化规范，而不是直接在生理水平上影响眼神接触行为的文化。
Eye contact has a fundamental role in human social interaction. The special appearance of the human eye (i.e., white sclera contrasted with a coloured iris) implies the importance of detecting another person's face through eye contact. Empirical studies have demonstrated that faces making eye contact are detected quickly and processed preferentially (i.e., the eye contact effect). Such sensitivity to eye contact seems to be innate and universal among humans; however, several studies suggest that cultural norms affect eye contact behaviours. For example, Japanese individuals exhibit less eye contact than do individuals from Western European or North American cultures. However, how culture modulates eye contact behaviour is unclear. The present study investigated cultural differences in autonomic correlates of attentional orienting (i.e., heart rate) and looking time. Additionally, we examined evaluative ratings of eye contact with another real person, displaying an emotionally neutral expression, between participants from Western European (Finnish) and East Asian (Japanese) cultures. Our results showed that eye contact elicited stronger heart rate deceleration responses (i.e., attentional orienting), shorter looking times, and higher ratings of subjective feelings of arousal as compared to averted gaze in both cultures. Instead, cultural differences in the eye contact effect were observed in various evaluative responses regarding the stimulus faces (e.g., facial emotion, approachability etc.). The rating results suggest that individuals from an East Asian culture perceive another's face as being angrier, unapproachable, and unpleasant when making eye contact as compared to individuals from a Western European culture. The rating results also revealed that gaze direction (direct vs. averted) could influence perceptions about another person's facial affect and disposition. These results suggest that cultural differences in eye contact behaviour emerge from differential display rules and cultural norms, as opposed to culture affecting eye contact behaviour directly at the physiological level.