The Effect of Duration of Eye Contact on American College Students' Attributions of State, Trait, and Test Anxiety

Abstract

Male and female U.S. college students were randomly assigned to one of six groups, in which they viewed a 60-s videotape. The content of the tape was derived from the factorial combination of sex of model on the tape and duration of eye contact (5 s, 30 s, or 50 s) maintained by the model with an interviewer. After viewing the tape, participants completed three inventories as they thought the model in the tape they had viewed would. The inventories measured state, trait, and test anxiety. The results showed that, as eye contact maintained by the model increased, the model was judged to have less state anxiety, less trait anxiety, and less test anxiety. This effect was more pronounced for the female model than for the male model. The data extend previous experimental and correlational findings that, as eye contact increases, an individual is judged more positively. Also, the results show that these positive attributions are made with respect to both situational and dispositional personality characteristics.