Beyond the Gender Differences: Gendered Socialization Impact on Gaze-Cueing Effect.

Abstract

Previous work has demonstrated that women exhibit stronger gaze-cueing effects than men; however, the nature of this heightened sensitivity to gaze directions has not been investigated. Thus, the current study investigates the role of gendered socialization processes in contributing to gender differences in gaze-cueing effects. In Experiment 1, participants completed a gaze-cueing experiment and a series of questionnaires to investigate the impacts of gendered socialization on any observed gender differences in gaze-cueing effects. In Experiment 2, we eliminated the social aspects of the cues by employing a peripheral cueing paradigm, and participants completed the same series of questionnaires as in Experiment 1. All analyses were conducted using linear mixed-effects models, and the questionnaires were grouped into three factors based on an exploratory factor analysis. The results illustrate that internalized gendered attitudes shaped by gendered socialization modulate attentional orienting to socially meaningful gaze cues, but not to non-social peripheral cues. By integrating gendered socialization into attention research, our findings emphasize that even fundamental cognitive operations are intricately embedded within cultural and social frameworks.