Abstract
Eye contact is very important in social interactions, but are people more attentive to faces that look at them than to other stimuli? The present study examined this question by comparing viewers' ability to detect faces and objects in an attentional blink paradigm. The faces compared were either looking directly at the camera and therefore at the participant (direct gaze) or not (averted gaze). Participants watched one or two intact pictures among scrambled ones. They reported whether the target picture (T1) was a female face, a male face, or an object. A second image (T2) appeared on half of the trials with various SOA. Participants were asked to detect the presence of the second image. The results revealed a smaller attentional blink for faces than for objects, indicating that the viewers paid attention to faces more than to objects. Moreover, when comparing direct gaze and averted gaze faces in the T1 and T2 positions the following overall effects where obtained. A direct gaze face at T1 led to a stronger attentional blink suggesting that a direct gaze face held the viewers' attention more. On the other hand, a direct gaze face at T2 led to a weaker attentional blink suggesting that direct gaze captured attention better.