How the fear of COVID-19 changed the way we look at human faces

PeerJ

article

Giovanni Federico¹  Donatella Ferrante²  Francesco Marcatto²  Maria Antonella Brandimonte³ 

[1] IRCCS SDN;Department of Life Science, University of Trieste;Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Suor Orsola Benincasa University

关键词: COVID-19;    Pandemic;    Human faces;    Eye contact;    Visual attention;    Social interaction;    Social cognition;    Eye-tracking;    Face processing;    Social brain;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.11380

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Do we look at persons currently or previously affected by COVID-19 the same way as we do with healthy ones? In this eye-tracking study, we investigated how participants (N = 54) looked at faces of individuals presented as “COVID-19 Free”, “Sick with COVID-19”, or “Recovered from COVID-19”. Results showed that participants tend to look at the eyes of COVID-19-free faces longer than at those of both COVID-19-related faces. Crucially, we also found an increase of visual attention for the mouth of the COVID-19-related faces, possibly due to the threatening characterisation of such area as a transmission vehicle for SARS-CoV-2. Thus, by detailing how people dynamically changed the way of looking at faces as a function of the perceived risk of contagion, we provide the first evidence in the literature about the impact of the pandemic on the most basic level of social interaction.

【 授权许可】

CC BY