Dimensional asymmetries in social attention: Dynamic head movements elicit opposite attentional biases in vertical versus horizontal dimensions

Abstract

When observing a person with direct gaze but a horizontally averted head posture, attention often shifts opposite to head direction (overshoot effect). We investigated whether this effect generalizes to vertical head movements and whether it depends on gaze direction information. Across four experiments, centrally presented faces shifted dynamically to averted head positions before a target appeared at a location congruent or incongruent with head direction. Vertical head movements (Experiments 1 and 2) produced head-congruency effects, which were stronger when the eyes were closed. In contrast, horizontal head movements (Experiments 3 and 4) produced classic overshoot effects, which surprisingly were amplified when the eyes were closed. Thus, direct gaze attenuated head-cueing effects but did not alter their direction. Overall, these findings reveal dimensional asymmetries in social attention and demonstrate that gaze-head integration considers spatial context. Implications for hierarchical, holistic, and predictive cue-integration accounts are discussed.

All four experiments were preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF; Experiment 1: https://osf.io/qds4x; Experiment 2: https://osf.io/d6rwe; Experiment 3: https://osf.io/xe9a6; Experiment 4: https://osf.io/3pq49). Materials, experimental scripts, stimuli, raw data, and analysis scripts underlying the reported results are publicly available at https://osf.io/aq7zf/ and https://osf.io/j96fx/