Abstract
Direct gaze and interpersonal proximity are known to lead to changes in psycho-physiology, behavior and brain function. We know little, however, about subtler facial reactions such as rise and fall in temperature, which may be sensitive to contextual effects and functional in social interactions. Using thermal infrared imaging cameras 18 female adult participants were filmed at two interpersonal distances (intimate and social) and two gaze conditions (averted and direct). The order of variation in distance was counterbalanced: half the participants experienced a female experimenter's gaze at the social distance first before the intimate distance (a socially “normal” order) and half experienced the intimate distance first and then the social distance (an odd social order). At both distances averted gaze always preceded direct gaze. We found strong correlations in thermal changes between six areas of the face (forehead, chin, cheeks, nose, maxilliary, and periorbital regions) for all experimental conditions and developed a composite measure of thermal shifts for all analyses. Interpersonal proximity led to a thermal rise, but only in the “normal” social order. Direct gaze, compared to averted gaze, led to a thermal increase at both distances with a stronger effect at intimate distance, in both orders of distance variation. Participants reported direct gaze as more intrusive than averted gaze, especially at the intimate distance. These results demonstrate the powerful effects of another person's gaze on psycho-physiological responses, even at a distance and independent of context.
Highlights
The way that people communicate and engage in emotional and intentional exchanges needs the recognition of the subtle nonverbal cues that conspecifics generate (Freeth et al, 2013)
FACIAL TEMPERATURE ANALYSES To obtain a more clear and robust pattern on the effects that interpersonal distance and gaze had on facial skin temperature, all regions of interest (ROI) were averaged and a 2 × 2 × 2 mixed factorial ANOVA was performed on the averaged data
The subjective ratings given by the participants on the self-report unpleasantness scales supported the thermal findings: the highest “uncomfortable” scores were obtained by direct gaze in intimate and social distance followed by averted gaze in intimate and social distance
Summary
The way that people communicate and engage in emotional and intentional exchanges needs the recognition of the subtle nonverbal cues that conspecifics generate (Freeth et al, 2013). Gaze (Frischen et al, 2007) and interpersonal distance (Baillenson et al, 2001) are important sources of social meaning, conveying a range of information regarding intentions (Nummenmaa and Calder, 2009), interpersonal relationships (Little, 1965; Evans and Howard, 1973), character (Argyle et al, 1974; Sodikoff et al, 1974), culture (Hall, 1966; Watson, 1970) as well as mental health and emotional state (Oliver et al, 2001; Aziraj and Ceranic, 2013; Freeth et al, 2013). Neuroimaging data have shown that the amygdala, a major structure for emotional processing, responds when individuals observe images of others engaging in direct gaze, rather than when they look somewhere else (Kawashima et al, 1999). Single cell recordings have shown that cells in the anterior part of the superior temporal sulcus code the social significance of the visual stimulus. Jellema et al (2004) exposed rhesus macaques to a live 3-D live presentation of a human walking away or toward the subject in a both compatible
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