The impact of eye contact on the sense of agency

• Published in: Consciousness and cognition Vol. 74; p. 102794
• Main Authors: Ulloa, José Luis, Vastano, Roberta, George, Nathalie, Brass, Marcel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-09-2019; Elsevier BV; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agency; Cognitive ability; Cognitive science; Eye contact; Intentional binding; Life Sciences; Neurons and Cognition; Neuroscience; Psychology; Psychology and behavior; Self-referential processing; Self-referential processing; Agency; Intentional binding; Eye contact
• ISSN: 1053-8100; 1090-2376
• DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.102794

•Possible links between the sense of agency and eye contact are tested.•Eye contact was found to increase the sense of agency as assessed by intentional binding.•The effect of eye contact was independent of whether the eye contact precedes or follows a key press.•The effect of eye contact is restricted to certain time frames.
Recent research suggests that eye contact can lead to enhanced self-awareness. A related phenomenon, the sense of agency deals with the notion of the self as the origin of our actions. Possible links between eye contact and agency have been so far neglected. Here, we investigated whether an implicit sense of agency could be modulated by eye gaze. We asked participants to respond (button press) to a face stimulus: looking or not at the participant (experiment 1); or displaying distinct eye gaze before or after a mask (experiment 2). After each trial, participants estimated the time between their key press and the ensuing effects. We found enhanced intentional binding for conditions that involved direct compared to averted gaze. This study supports the idea that eye contact is an important cue that affects complex cognitive processes and suggests that modulating self-processing can impact the sense of agency.