Junior Researcher Studies Pupil Mimicry and Trust

Article: Larger pupils? You might just have gained someone’s trust
Source: Leiden University (Netherlands)
Published: March 2, 2021

As part of a PhD dissertation, a junior researcher in the Netherlands conducted several experiments exploring synchrony of physiological responses, such as pupil size, and aspects of social interaction like trust. Known as autonomic mimicry, we humans can align our physiological responses with one another through involuntary non-verbal signals. Prior studies had investigated larger movements, such as facial expressions and body language in synchrony of social interaction. Advances in technology to measure eye movements and pupil diameter allowed for studies of more subtle responses. The researcher in this case conducted an experiment in which human participants played a "trust game" with a computer simulation while their pupil diameter was measured. According to the news article, "The results showed that in social interactions where the computer simulations’ pupils were larger, the subject trusted the simulation more and mimicked the pupil diameter of the simulation. In an interaction where the simulations’ pupils were smaller, the subjects seemed to trust the simulation significantly less." The now post-doc also explored whether partially blocking sight influenced the response, but cautions that such research is still in development. For more information about the topic, see her blog post from 2018 and the corresponding journal article.

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