Social Interaction as Seen through Pupils

Article: Window to Mind: Pupils Mirror Perception of Social Interaction
Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
Published: July 30, 2021

As part of the autonomic sympathetic nervous system, the pupils of our eyes change size in response to arousing emotional stimuli. Psychologists in China were interested in exploring whether pupil size could also serve as a window to social motivations, particularly social interaction. In a set of three experiments, the scientists tested pupillary response to second-person social interaction, observation of third-person social interaction, and communicative social interaction. They found that pupil size enlarged when the participants perceived a single agent sending interactive intention toward them as compared to toward others, and when they viewed two agents interacting with each other as compared to facing away from each other. These pupil dilation effects, however, relied on correct understanding of the communicative intentions of the interacting agents. The experiments show that, perhaps related to well-documented relationships between pupils and emotional response, pupil size could also indicate perception of social interaction. In brief, humans are social beings possessing intrinsic motivations toward interacting with others and maintaining social relationships. The study adds insight to the visual system's sensitivity to social interaction, with pupils being a potential biomarker for early detection of social cognitive disorders.

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Cheng Y, Liu W, Yuan X, et al. "The Eyes Have It: Perception of Social Interaction Unfolds Through Pupil Dilation." Neuroscience Bulletin.  37:1595–1598. 1 July 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-021-00739-z