552
Views
3
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Theme II: Effects of reciprocity on social and cognitive behaviour

Attentional gaze dynamics in group interactions

ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 135-150 | Received 20 Jan 2021, Accepted 26 Apr 2021, Published online: 18 May 2021
 

ABSTRACT

Group interactions influence human social and cognitive function. However, the non-verbal vehicles of that influence remain poorly understood. To address this question, here we present a taxonomy of interactive non-verbal attentional gaze behaviours – social referencing, participation, and mutual engagement – which we captured and characterized during live three-person interactions. Experiment 1 measured how each of these non-verbal indices predicted both the groups’ social dynamic (in terms of leadership perception) and later individual group member’s behaviour (in terms of gaze following magnitudes). The data indicated that the three attentional gaze behaviours (i) reliably reflected the groups’ nonverbal dynamics, (ii) predicted the groups’ social dynamics, and (iii) connected meaningfully with individual members’ behaviour. Experiment 2 confirmed that these group-to-individual links were dependent on individuals participating in a prior group interaction. Thus, our taxonomy of nonverbal attentional gaze behaviours characterizes both group and individual function well, and as such provides a methodological foundation for future investigations of non-verbal group dynamics and their links with individual behaviour.

Acknowledgements

Supported by Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (FC, JR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (JR), William Dawson Chairs Fund (JR), Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FC). Thanks to O. Larson and R. Markham for support in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Nature et Technologies; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; William Dawson Chairs Fund; and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.