The emotional response to social gaze is a domain specific cognitive mechanism

Eye contact with another person (social gaze) activates the autonomic nervous system, which is measurable using the skin conductance response (SCR). This study tested a 'domain specificity' model of the social gaze response mechanism by comparing emotional responses during social gaze and 'self-gaze' (looking in a mirror) conditions. Domain specific mechanisms have narrow responses properties and domain general mechanisms have broad ones, and this difference has implications for understanding how cognitive abilities evolved. I reasoned that if SCR's differed between trials, it would support domain specificity. I compared SCR's during social gaze and self-gaze in forty-seven participant pairs. Each participant engaged in ten, 20 s trials, alternating between social gaze and self-gaze. Social gaze produced significantly larger SCRs and a greater number of SCRs compared to self-gaze. These results suggest that the social gaze response mechanism is domain specific. Implications for understanding gaze response deficits in psychological disorders are discussed.