Gaze Display When Thinking Depends on Culture and Context

Abstract

In three experiments, the roles of culture and social factors in individual's eye gaze displays when thinking were examined. Canadian and Japanese participants answered questions requiring thinking to derive the answers in social and nonsocial contexts. Canadian participants looked up when thinking but only when they were aware of being observed. They looked down when they knew they could not be seen. In contrast, Japanese participants looked down when thinking even when they knew they were being observed. These results are inconsistent with the view that eye movement patterns when thinking are driven solely by endogenous brain activities and consistent with the view that thinking-related gaze behaviors are modulated by cultural display rules and social contexts.