Inferences about women’s traits influence the judgment of their eye contact

TL;DR

This study shows that people's assumptions about a woman's traits affect how they judge whether she is making eye contact with them.

Contribution

The study reveals that inferred social desirability of women influences the perception of their eye contact through a psychological mechanism.

Findings

CoDG width was wider for female faces associated with socially desirable traits.

The effect may be due to approach-related action tendency or self-referential positivity bias.

Trait inference about women's social desirability aligns with stereotypes, enhancing perceived likeability.

Abstract

We investigated whether trait inference about others’ social desirability influences perceivers’ judgments of eye contact with them, measured by the cone of direct gaze (CoDG) width—the range within which slight gaze deviations are perceived as direct. We also explored how the effect is modulated by participants’ gender and gazers’ sex. In Experiment 1, participants read descriptions of a likeable female and an unlikeable male (or vice versa). Subsequently, they judged whether they were being looked at or not by these individuals displaying various gaze directions. In Experiment 2, participants inferred trait desirability and performed eye contact tasks sequentially for two faces of the same sex, either beginning with a likeable face followed by an unlikeable face or vice versa. In Experiment 3, participants first performed eye-contact judgment for an individual without trait manipulation. They then inferred trait desirability for a second same-sex individual whose traits were manipulated as likeable or unlikeable, followed by eye-contact judgment for that individual. Results showed that CoDG width was wider for female faces associated with socially desirable traits than for those associated with socially undesirable traits. Desirable traits inferred from women’s social behaviors may align with individuals’ expectations of stereotypical women, enhancing their perceived likeability. The widened CoDG may result from individuals’ approach-related action tendency, self-referential positivity bias, or a combination of both mechanisms.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13423-025-02704-7.

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