During the current worldwide pandemic, in which
virtual forms of communication have become more socially acceptable
than in-person interactions, it is important to recognize and explore
the differences in how social attention manifests across these two
contexts. We investigated social attention in a virtual, as well as a
face-to-face conversation, along with collecting a baseline lab measure
of social attention. Social attention during the conversations was
operationalized as the proportion of time participants spent looking at
their conversation partner either on-screen (virtual setting) or
in-person (real setting). In the computer task, social attention was
operationalized by contrasting speed-of-responding for gazed-at versus
not gazed-at targets, with faster responses for gazed-at targets
indicating social attention. First, our data replicate past studies,
with higher than chance level looking at faces during both
conversations and intact social attention in the computer task. When
comparing social attention across different goals, we found a negative
correlation between gaze to the head in the virtual conversation and
baseline social attention, suggesting that attention differs based on
the task at hand. When comparing gaze behaviour across conversations,
our preliminary findings indicate no relationship between the
proportion of time spent looking at the other person across these two
contexts. Together, our results suggest that social attention does
indeed differ across social contexts. It may not be that surprising,
therefore, that in-person interactions have been greatly missed!
.