Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement
The watching eyes effect has been shown to influence prosocial and antisocial behaviors. However, the eye characteristics which induce this effect remain unclear. This study explored how emotional expressions (anger, fear, happy, neutral), age (old, young), and sex (male, female) of eye images affec...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Open Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/psych-2022-0135 |
| _version_ | 1797368779740545024 |
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| author | Lau Wee Kiat Sauter Marian Bulut Cihan Eberhardt Lisa Valentina Huckauf Anke |
| author_facet | Lau Wee Kiat Sauter Marian Bulut Cihan Eberhardt Lisa Valentina Huckauf Anke |
| author_sort | Lau Wee Kiat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The watching eyes effect has been shown to influence prosocial and antisocial behaviors. However, the eye characteristics which induce this effect remain unclear. This study explored how emotional expressions (anger, fear, happy, neutral), age (old, young), and sex (male, female) of eye images affect antisocial behavior, measured by stereotype endorsement. Participants rated their endorsement of 36 stereotype statements about race, gender, and religion topics, each paired with an eye image. Our findings indicated that stereotype endorsement did not differ significantly between neutral eye images and control flower images. We then used neutral eyes as control images to evaluate stereotype endorsement when being watched by eyes with other expressions. When comparing endorsement across age and sex in each expression, the data revealed higher endorsement for angry old male eyes and for happy young eyes (males and females), and lower endorsement for fearful eyes, except for old fearful female eyes. Therefore, varying the emotional expression, sex, and age of the eye images used in the watching eyes effect paradigm influences stereotype endorsement. To further unravel the underlying mechanisms behind the watching eyes effect, we encourage future research to explore how varying characteristics of the eyes affect responses/behaviors like stereotype endorsement. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T17:37:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1b802fed301644d9889c1fa8df9c8fee |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2543-8883 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T17:37:39Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-1b802fed301644d9889c1fa8df9c8fee2024-01-02T11:34:22ZengDe GruyterOpen Psychology2543-88832023-12-0151pp. 10310710.1515/psych-2022-0135Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement EndorsementLau Wee Kiat0Sauter Marian1Bulut Cihan2Eberhardt Lisa Valentina3Huckauf Anke4Department of General Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081Ulm, GermanyDepartment of General Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081Ulm, GermanyDepartment of General Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081Ulm, GermanyDepartment of General Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081Ulm, GermanyDepartment of General Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081Ulm, GermanyThe watching eyes effect has been shown to influence prosocial and antisocial behaviors. However, the eye characteristics which induce this effect remain unclear. This study explored how emotional expressions (anger, fear, happy, neutral), age (old, young), and sex (male, female) of eye images affect antisocial behavior, measured by stereotype endorsement. Participants rated their endorsement of 36 stereotype statements about race, gender, and religion topics, each paired with an eye image. Our findings indicated that stereotype endorsement did not differ significantly between neutral eye images and control flower images. We then used neutral eyes as control images to evaluate stereotype endorsement when being watched by eyes with other expressions. When comparing endorsement across age and sex in each expression, the data revealed higher endorsement for angry old male eyes and for happy young eyes (males and females), and lower endorsement for fearful eyes, except for old fearful female eyes. Therefore, varying the emotional expression, sex, and age of the eye images used in the watching eyes effect paradigm influences stereotype endorsement. To further unravel the underlying mechanisms behind the watching eyes effect, we encourage future research to explore how varying characteristics of the eyes affect responses/behaviors like stereotype endorsement.https://doi.org/10.1515/psych-2022-0135watching eyesemotionssex and age |
| spellingShingle | Lau Wee Kiat Sauter Marian Bulut Cihan Eberhardt Lisa Valentina Huckauf Anke Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement Open Psychology watching eyes emotions sex and age |
| title | Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement |
| title_full | Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement |
| title_fullStr | Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement |
| title_short | Revisiting the Watching Eyes Effect: How Emotional Expressions, Sex, and Age of Watching Eyes Influence Stereotypical Statement Endorsement |
| title_sort | revisiting the watching eyes effect how emotional expressions sex and age of watching eyes influence stereotypical statement endorsement |
| topic | watching eyes emotions sex and age |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/psych-2022-0135 |
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