I Trust You; Hence I Like the Things You Look at: Gaze Cueing and Sender Trustworthiness Influence Object Evaluation

Abstract

Joint attention increases observer (receiver) trust in the joint attention partner (sender) and influences the liking of objects. However, the link between a sender's trustworthiness and joint attention outcomes remains unclear. Here, the trustworthiness of the sender was manipulated prior to the actual experiment by presenting their faces accompanied by person descriptor vignettes that varied in terms of trustworthiness. During the joint attention paradigm, the participants' task consisted of categorizing objects as quickly as possible; objects that were cued or ignored by senders' eye gaze (reaction times were recorded). Subsequently, participants provided preference ratings for each object. Objects cued by a trustworthy sender were preferred to objects ignored by this sender or those appearing alongside an untrustworthy sender. Reaction times, however, revealed that decisions about objects ignored by an untrustworthy sender were particularly slowed. Together these data indicate that, in joint attention, sender trustworthiness influences object preferences and decision times differently.