Increased gaze cueing of attention during COVID-19 lockdown

Mario Dalmaso,Luigi Castelli,Giovanni Galfano

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103283

Abstract

SummaryAffiliation with others is a basic human need. The lockdown implemented for counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic has determined an unprecedented situation of social deprivation, forcing individuals to dramatically reduce face-to-face interactions. This, in turn, has caused relevant consequences on psychological well-being. However, the impact of lockdown-related social isolation on basic cognitive processes is still largely unknown. Here, we focus on social attention and address gaze cueing, namely the ability to shift attention in response to the gaze of others. This is a hard-wired cognitive mechanism critically supporting the establishment of social interactions and pervasive relationships among individuals. Our results show a stronger gaze-cueing effect during, rather than after, the lockdown, whose magnitude was positively correlated with social isolation distress. These findings indicate that, in a condition of prolonged social deprivation, orienting of attention may be shaped by hypersensitivity to social cues, likely due to the strive to reconnect with others.

Highlights

Was the first country to suffer a major COVID-19 emergency in Europe (Lavezzo et al, 2020)
The lockdown implemented for counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic has determined an unprecedented situation of social deprivation, forcing individuals to dramatically reduce face-toface interactions
This is a hard-wired cognitive mechanism critically supporting the establishment of social interactions and pervasive relationships among individuals

Summary

Introduction

Was the first country to suffer a major COVID-19 emergency in Europe (Lavezzo et al, 2020). On March 9th, the Italian government imposed—first case among Western nations—a national lockdown to curtail the spread of the virus. Humans display an intrinsic need to establish social interactions, and our daily life is generally characterized by continuous social exchanges with others (Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Tomasello, 2014). In this regard, the lockdown was effective in preventing the spread of the virus (Silverio et al, 2020), it led to undesirable side effects on psychological well-being (Sibley et al, 2020)

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