Summary: People who are more empathetic and who score higher on extraversion, agreeableness, and openness are more likely to focus on faces in images. In contrast, individuals with higher levels of depression, social anxiety, or alexithymia tend to look at faces less often.
Source: PLOS
A recent study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Marius Rubo of the University of Bern and colleagues finds links between personality traits, psychopathology measures, and how much attention people pay to human faces in images.
Humans generally gravitate toward faces when viewing scenes, even when images are visually complex. Previous work hinted that this tendency—the strength of a person’s face preference—may vary with personality or clinical characteristics. This study explored how several major psychological traits relate to the likelihood that someone will direct attention toward faces within photographs.
The researchers recruited 120 participants, primarily university students, and asked them to view 20 photographs that depicted people in cluttered, real-world settings. To measure attention, the study used a cursor-based tracking method: each photo was blurred except for a clear circular area around the cursor. By moving the cursor, participants revealed portions of the image, allowing the investigators to approximate which image regions attracted attention.
After viewing the photos, participants completed standardized questionnaires measuring the Big Five personality traits—extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism—along with validated scales for empathy, social anxiety, depression, and alexithymia (difficulty identifying and describing emotions). The researchers then examined how these trait scores related to the proportion of viewing time spent on faces within the images.
Overall, participants spent roughly 17% of their image-viewing time looking at faces. The analysis showed consistent individual differences in face preference across images. Higher scores on extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience were associated with a stronger tendency to focus on faces. Participants who reported greater empathic ability also tended to look at faces more.
By contrast, elevated measures of social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and alexithymia were linked to reduced attention to faces. In other words, participants with greater levels of these forms of psychopathology were less likely to direct their viewing time toward faces in the photographs.
The authors caution that cursor-based tracking is an imperfect proxy for eye tracking: cursor movements are slower and may not capture instantaneous gaze shifts. They also note that attention to faces in static images differs from attention in live social interactions. Nevertheless, the results indicate a meaningful association between face preference and both normal personality variation and clinical features.
The researchers conclude that while pictures of human faces draw attention for most people, this pull is diminished among individuals reporting higher levels of social anxiety, depression, or related psychopathological traits. They emphasize that face preference appears to reflect a combination of personality and clinical factors rather than a single diagnostic feature.
About this facial attention and personality research news
Author: Press Office
Source: PLOS
Contact: Press Office – PLOS
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “Attention to faces in images is associated with personality and psychopathology” by Marius Rubo et al., PLOS ONE
Abstract
Attention to faces in images is associated with personality and psychopathology
People reliably tend to look at faces in images, but individuals vary consistently in how strongly they prefer faces. Past studies produced mixed findings about whether stronger face preference corresponds to specific personality traits or clinical characteristics.
This study assessed face preference in 120 participants (mainly students) who freely viewed photographs showing people embedded in visually rich scenes while attention was measured using a cursor-based reveal technique.
Participants showed stable differences in their tendency to attend to faces. Greater face preference correlated positively with openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and empathic disposition, and correlated negatively with social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and alexithymia.
Trait measures were interconnected through a common factor that also related to face preference. The findings suggest face preference is linked to broad personality dimensions and to psychopathology in general, though attributing face preference to any single clinical facet is not supported.
Future research should examine these relationships in more diverse populations and across different social contexts to clarify how personality and mental-health factors shape visual attention to faces.