Eye Contact & Attention Influence Perception of Time

Article: Our attention is captured by eye-glance
Source: University of Geneva (Switzerland), via Technology Networks
Published: April 20, 2021

Researchers in Switzerland studying the social aspects of eye contact conducted a series of experiments exploring the influence of eye contact on the perception of time, with a focus on exploring connections with emotion and attention. The question they wanted to investigate was whether eye contact with others directly generates an emotional response without passing through attention, or whether eye contact activates attention processing that then generates an emotional response. To differentiate between the two hypotheses, the researchers looked at how either emotion and attention impact our evaluation of time, noting that it has been shown that we overestimate the passage of time (i.e., we perceive that time passes more quickly) when confronted with an unpleasant visual stimulus, such as a large spider. Emotions accelerate our perception of time. Attention, on the other hand, has the opposite and instead slows down our perception of time (i.e., we underestimate the passage of time). Thus, by examining a person's estimation of how long he or she has been looking at an object, we can determine if the eye contact is associated with emotions or with attention.

The experiments involved 22 participants, who observed a series of nearly 300 faces with gazes that either established eye contact (i.e., direct gaze) or did not establish eye contact (i.e., deviated gaze). The participants then subjectively assessed the duration of the social contact. The study found that deviated gazes did not distort the perception of time, whereas gazes where the eyes met, participants underestimated the duration of eye contact. In other words, it is not emotion but attention that distracts our evaluation of time. To further assess this finding, the researchers then carried out the same experiments with other participants using non-social objects that mimicked movements of gaze and with static faces. No distortions in time perception were seen in those situations. Interestingly, however, when the researchers used schematic eyes or stimuli showing parts of eyes without the rest of the face (a similar situation to wearing a mask), both scenarios also making eye movements, the time distortion effect was seen. This finding suggests that not only gaze but also movement elicits the distortion of time perception. The effect was replicated in an online experiment with 100 people. The researchers next plan to study the evolution of this effect at different ages, from childhood to older age. Though these experiments are on the smaller end in terms of sample size, they provide intriguing results to further studies into the connection between eye contact and social cognition, which are clinically relevant to patients suffering from disorders in processing social stimuli. These findings about our preferential processing of eye contact by attention also informs social interactions more broadly. As the lead researcher concludes, “This study gives meaning to the sensation that time stops when we meet another’s gaze.”

My rating of this study: ⭐🌸

Burra N, Kerzel D. "Meeting another's gaze shortens subjective time by capturing attention." Cognition. Published online 19 April 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104734