Abstract
The goal of the present study was to provide first evidence for gender differences in gaze patterns while looking at the body of men and women. For this purpose participants were exposed to 30 pictures of 15 male and 15 female models in casual clothing. The individual scan paths were recorded using an eye-tracker. The results show that both male and female observers primarily gaze at people’s face. Only after this initial face-scan, men look significantly earlier and longer at women’s breasts, while women look earlier at men’s legs. These observations uncover important aspects of the pattern of the human gaze at others and particularly reveal important gender differences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aharon, I., Etcoff, N., Ariely, D., Chabris, C. F., O’Connor, E., & Breiter, H. C. (2001). Beautiful faces have variable reward value: fMRI and behavioral evidence. Neuron, 32(3), 537–551.
Bailenson, J. N., Blascovich, J., Beall, A. C., & Loomis, J. M. (2003). Interpersonal distance in immersive virtual environments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(7), 819–833.
Buss, D. (2004). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Munich: Pearson.
Calvo, M. G., & Lang, P. J. (2004). Gaze patterns when looking at emotional pictures: Motivationally biased attention. Motivation and Emotion, 28(3), 221–243.
Ekman, P. (1999). Facial expressions. In T. Dalgleish & M. J. Power (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 301–320). Chichester: Wiley.
Ekman, P. (2003). Emotions revealed. Undertanding faces and feelings. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Ekman, P., & Oster, H. (1979). Facial expressions of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology, 30, 527–554.
Elzinga, R. H. (1978). Temporal organization of conversation. Sociolinguistics Newsletter, 9(2(Summer)), 21–29.
Fischer, H., Sandblom, J., Herlitz, A., Fransson, P., Wright, C. I., & Backman, L. (2004). Sex-differential brain activation during exposure to female and male faces. Neuroreport, 15(2), 235–238.
Fridlund, A. J. (1991). Evolution and facial action in reflex, social motive, and paralanguage. Biological Psychology, 32(1), 3–100.
Fridlund, A. J. (1994). Human facial expression: An evolutionary view. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Gullberg, M., & Holmqvist, K. (1999). Keeping an eye on gestures: Visual perception of gestures in face-to-face communication. Pragmatics and Cognition, 7(1), 35–63.
Hall, J. A., Coats, E. J., & LeBeau, L. S. (2005). Nonverbal behavior and the vertical dimension of social relations: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 898–924.
Haxby, J. V., Gobbini, M. I., Furey, M. L., Ishai, A., Schouten, J. L., & Pietrini, P. (2001). Distributed and overlapping representations of faces and objects in ventral temporal cortex. Science, 293(5539), 2425–2430.
Haxby, J. V., Hoffman, E. A., & Gobbini, M. I. (2002). Human neural systems for face recognition and social communication. Biological Psychiatry, 51(1), 59–67.
Henderson, J. M. (2003). Human gaze control during real-world scene perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(11), 498–504.
Henderson, J. M., Williams, C. C., Castelhano, M. S., & Falk, R. J. (2003). Eye movements and picture processing during recognition. Perception and Psychophysics, 65(5), 725–734.
Hoffman, E. A., & Haxby, J. V. (2000). Distinct representations of eye gaze and identity in the distributed human neural system for face perception. Nature Neuroscience, 3(1), 80–84.
Jasienska, G., Ziomkiewicz, A., Ellison, P. T., Lipson, S. F., & Thune, I. (2004). Large breasts and narrow waists indicate high reproductive potential in women. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271(1545), 1213–1217.
Johnson, K. L., & Tassinary, L. G. (2005). Perceiving sex directly and indirectly: Meaning in motion and morphology. Psychological Science, 16(11), 890–897.
Johnson, M. H., Dziurawiec, S., Ellis, H., & Morton, J. (1991). Newborns’ preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline. Cognition, 40(1–2), 1–19.
Klin, A., Jones, W., Schultz, R., Volkmar, F., & Cohen, D. (2002). Visual fixation patterns during viewing of naturalistic social situations as predictors of social competence in individuals with autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59(9), 809–816.
Kranz, F., & Ishai, A. (2006). Face perception is modulated by sexual preference. Current Biology, 16(1), 63–68.
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2001). International affective picture system (IAPS): Instruction manual and affective ratings. Gainesville: University of Florida, Center for Research in Psychophysiology.
Lykins, A., Meana, M., & Kambe, G. (2006). Detection of differential viewing patterns to erotic and non-erotic stimuli using eye-tracking methodology. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35, 197–210.
Miltner, W. H., Krieschel, S., Hecht, H., Trippe, R., & Weiss, T. (2004). Eye movements and behavioral responses to threatening and nonthreatening stimuli during visual search in phobic and nonphobic subjects. Emotion, 4(4), 323–339.
Morton, J., & Johnson, M. H. (1991). CONSPEC and CONLERN: A two-process theory of infant face recognition. Psychological Review, 98(2), 164–181.
Öhman, A. (1993). Fear and anxiety as emotional phenomena: Clinical phenomenology, evolutionary perspectives and information-processing mechanisms. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 511–536). New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Scharlemann, J. P. W., Eckel, C. C., Kacelnik, A., & Wilson, R. K. (2001). The value of a smile: Game theory with a human face. Journal of Economic Psychology, 22(5), 617–640.
Schweinberger, S. R., Pickering, E. C., Jentzsch, I., Burton, A. M., & Kaufmann, J. M. (2002). Event-related brain potential evidence for a response of inferior temporal cortex to familiar face repetitions. Cognitive Brain Research, 14(3), 398–409.
Schweinberger, S. R., Huddy, V., & Burton, A. M. (2004). N250r: A face-selective brain response to stimulus repetitions. Neuroreport, 15(9), 1501–1505.
Singh, D. (1993). Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(2), 293–307.
Singh, D. (1995). Female judgment of male attractiveness and desirability for relationships: Role of waist-to-hip ratio and financial status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(6), 1089–1101.
Singh, D., & Young, R. K. (1995). Body weight, waist-to-hip ratio, breasts, and hips: Role in judgments of female attractiveness and desirability for relationships. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16(6), 483–507.
Thornhill, R., & Grammer, K. (1999). The body and face of woman: One ornament that signals quality? Evolution and Human Behavior, 20(2), 105–120.
Williams, L. M., Senior, C., David, A. S., Loughland, C. M., & Gordon, E. (2001). In search of the ‘Duchenne’ smile: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Psychophysiology, 15, 122–127.
Zebrowitz, L. A., & Rhodes, G. (2004). Sensitivity to ‘bad genes’ and the anomalous face overgeneralization effect: Cue validity, cue utilization, and accuracy in judging intelligence and health. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 28(3), 167–185.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to Yadira Roa Romero, Luisa Kreußel, Andrea Büttner, Anja Schöning, Anita Pälchen, Christin Krenz, and Marie-Susann Raschke for assistance during data acquisition.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hewig, J., Trippe, R.H., Hecht, H. et al. Gender Differences for Specific Body Regions When Looking at Men and Women. J Nonverbal Behav 32, 67–78 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0043-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0043-5