Journal article

Authors list: Broda, Maximilian Davide; de Haas, Benjamin

Publication year: 2024

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Volume number: 121

Issue number: 12

ISSN: 0027-8424

eISSN: 1091-6490

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322149121

Publisher: National Academy of Sciences

Abstract: 

Individuals differ in where they fixate on a face, with some looking closer to the eyes while others prefer the mouth region. These individual biases are highly robust, generalize from the lab to the outside world, and have been associated with social cognition and associated disorders. However, it is unclear, whether these biases are specific to faces or influenced by domain- general mechanisms of vision. Here, we juxtaposed these hypotheses by testing whether individual face fixation biases generalize to inanimate objects. We analyzed >1.8 million fixations toward faces and objects in complex natural scenes from 405 participants tested in multiple labs. Consistent interindividual differences in fixation positions were highly inter- correlated across faces and objects in all samples. Observers who fixated closer to the eye region also fixated higher on inanimate objects and vice versa. Furthermore, the inter- individual spread of fixation positions scaled with target size in precisely the same, non- linear manner for faces and objects. These findings contradict a purely domain- specific account of individual face gaze. Instead, they suggest significant domain- general contributions to the individual way we look at faces, a finding with potential relevance for basic vision, face perception, social cognition, and associated clinical conditions.

Harvard Citation style: Broda, M. and de Haas, B. (2024) Individual differences in human gaze behavior generalize from faces to objects, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(12), Article e2322149121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322149121

APA Citation style: Broda, M., & de Haas, B. (2024). Individual differences in human gaze behavior generalize from faces to objects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121(12), Article e2322149121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322149121