The dual nature of eye contact: to see and to be seen

Previous research has shown that physiological arousal and attentional responses to eye contact are modulated by one's knowledge of whether they are seen by another person. Recently it was shown that this 'eye contact effect' can be elicited without seeing another person's eyes at all. We aimed to investigate whether the eye contact effect is actually triggered by the mere knowledge of being seen by another individual, i.e. even in a condition when the perceiver does not see the other person at all. We measured experienced self-awareness and both autonomic and brain activity responses while participants were facing another person (a model) sitting behind a window. We manipulated the visibility of the model and the participants' belief of whether or not the model could see them. When participants did not see the model but believed they were seen by the model, physiological responses were attenuated in comparison to when both parties saw each other. However, self-assessed public self-awareness was not attenuated in this condition. Thus, two requirements must be met for physiological responses to occur in response to eye contact: an experience of being seen by another individual and an experience of seeing the other individual.