Document Type : Original Article
Researcher
Ministry of Science,, Research and Technology
Ministerial Ethics Committee
Social connections are essential for human survival. Loneliness acts as a motivational factor in forming and maintaining social connections. Automatic attention occurs with minimal cognitive effort and plays a significant role in detecting biologically salient events, such as human faces. Although previous studies have examined the effects of loneliness on social behavior, the effect of loneliness on automatic attention to human faces remains largely unknown. In this study, in addition to investigating these effects, we will examine whether the need to belong and gender modulate these effects. The present study investigates the effects of loneliness on automatic visual attention to warmth and competent facial information, which determine facial attraction. In this study, participants will complete questionnaires measuring feelings of loneliness and the need to belong. Following that, they will perform a task where two house images appear at the top and bottom of the screen, with a face image on the left and right. Participants will indicate whether the house images are identical or not. The faces are presented as distractors, and visual attention to the faces is measured as automatic attention, as participants do not need to attend to the faces.