Pupil Mimicry and Trust: Predicting trust from pupil mimicry is a virtual reality setting

The human eye, due to its unique morphology, is central for social interactions. Eye contact and mutual eye gaze are important to infer other’s emotions and to share experiences. In particular, pupillary changes, dilation and constriction, provide implicit cues to infer internal states of an interacting partner: when one experiences pleasant feelings, pupils dilate. Individuals with larger pupils are evaluated as more friendly, attractive, and trustworthy than those with smaller pupils. During human interactions changes in pupil diameter synchronize, a phenomenon called pupil mimicry. In particular, dilation mimicry correlates with increased perceived trustworthiness. Aim of the hereby research is to further investigate the relationship between pupil mimicry and trust. To do so, we conducted an experiment in which participants listened to a series of virtual characters narrating neutral stories while changes in there pupil diameter were recorded via an eye-tracker, allowing us to...Show moreThe human eye, due to its unique morphology, is central for social interactions. Eye contact and mutual eye gaze are important to infer other’s emotions and to share experiences. In particular, pupillary changes, dilation and constriction, provide implicit cues to infer internal states of an interacting partner: when one experiences pleasant feelings, pupils dilate. Individuals with larger pupils are evaluated as more friendly, attractive, and trustworthy than those with smaller pupils. During human interactions changes in pupil diameter synchronize, a phenomenon called pupil mimicry. In particular, dilation mimicry correlates with increased perceived trustworthiness. Aim of the hereby research is to further investigate the relationship between pupil mimicry and trust. To do so, we conducted an experiment in which participants listened to a series of virtual characters narrating neutral stories while changes in there pupil diameter were recorded via an eye-tracker, allowing us to assess the presence of pupil mimicry by participants. A questionnaire after each interaction, in addition to an investment game were exploited to measure level of trust. A simple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate whether pupil mimicry is a predictor for trust, selecting cases by neutral stories. Despite our predictions -based on previous studies-, results proved our hypothesis wrong showing non-significant results for three neutral stories. Results were significant concerning two stories but showing the opposite trend than the expected one. Within the discussion session, limitations of the study which might explain such results will be exposed.Show less

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Pupil Mimicry and Trust: Predicting trust from pupil mimicry is a virtual reality setting