Follow my eyes: the gaze of politicians reflexively captures the gaze of ingroup voters

Studies in human and non-human primates indicate that basic socio-cognitive operations are inherently linked to the power of gaze in capturing reflexively the attention of an observer. Although monkey studies indicate that the automatic tendency to follow the gaze of a conspecific is modulated by th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-09, Vol.6 (9), p.e25117-e25117
Main Authors: Liuzza, Marco Tullio, Cazzato, Valentina, Vecchione, Michele, Crostella, Filippo, Caprara, Gian Vittorio, Aglioti, Salvatore Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Behavior
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Eye Movements
Female
Humans
Intergroup relations
Interpersonal Relations
Leadership
Male
Medicine
Oculomotor behavior
Perception
Personality
Personality traits
Political behavior
Political leadership
Politics
Primates
Propaganda
Psychology
Psychology, Social
Reflex
Saccades
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social factors
Social identity
Social interactions
Social status
Voter behavior
Voters
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Summary:Studies in human and non-human primates indicate that basic socio-cognitive operations are inherently linked to the power of gaze in capturing reflexively the attention of an observer. Although monkey studies indicate that the automatic tendency to follow the gaze of a conspecific is modulated by the leader-follower social status, evidence for such effects in humans is meager. Here, we used a gaze following paradigm where the directional gaze of right- or left-wing Italian political characters could influence the oculomotor behavior of ingroup or outgroup voters. We show that the gaze of Berlusconi, the right-wing leader currently dominating the Italian political landscape, potentiates and inhibits gaze following behavior in ingroup and outgroup voters, respectively. Importantly, the higher the perceived similarity in personality traits between voters and Berlusconi, the stronger the gaze interference effect. Thus, higher-order social variables such as political leadership and affiliation prepotently affect reflexive shifts of attention.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0025117