“You Talkin’ to Me?”

Abstract

In humans, direct gaze typically signals a deliberate attempt to communicate with an observer. An auditory signal with similar signal value is calling someone’s name. We investigated whether the presence of this personally relevant signal in the auditory modality would influence perception of another individual’s gaze. Participants viewed neutral faces displaying different gaze deviations while hearing someone call their own name or the name of another person. Results were consistent with our predictions, as participants judged faces with a wider range of gaze deviations as looking directly at them when they simultaneously heard their own name. The influence of this personally relevant signal was present only at ambiguous gaze deviations; thus, an overall response bias to categorize gaze as direct when hearing one’s own name cannot account for the results. This study provides the first evidence that communicative intent signaled via the auditory modality influences the perception of another individual’s gaze.