Itier, Roxane J.Palancia, Adam2017-03-062017-03-062012-01-10http://hdl.handle.net/10012/11429https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10919-011-0128-zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4072644/The final publication is available at Springer via https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10919-011-0128-z.Eye-tracking was used to investigate whether gaze direction would influence the visual scanning of faces, when presented in the context of a full character, in different social settings, and with different task demands. Participants viewed individual computer agents against either a blank background or a bar scene setting, during both a free-viewing task and an attractiveness rating task for each character. Faces with a direct gaze were viewed longer than faces with an averted gaze regardless of body context, social settings, and task demands. Additionally, participants evaluated characters with a direct gaze as more attractive than characters with an averted gaze. These results, obtained with pictures of computer agents rather than real people, suggest that direct gaze is a powerful attention grabbing stimulus that is robust to background context or task demands.enGaze directionEye trackingBody scanningArticle