LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Social Structure Predicts Eye Contact Tolerance in Nonhuman Primates: Evidence from a Crowd-Sourcing Approach

Photo from wikipedia

In most primates, eye contact is an implicit signal of threat, and often connotes social status and imminent physical aggression. However, in humans and some of the gregarious nonhuman primates,… Click to show full abstract

In most primates, eye contact is an implicit signal of threat, and often connotes social status and imminent physical aggression. However, in humans and some of the gregarious nonhuman primates, eye contact is tolerated more and may be used to communicate other emotional and mental states. What accounts for the variation in this critical social cue across primate species? We crowd-sourced primatologists and found a strong linear relationship between eye contact tolerance and primate social structure such that eye contact tolerance increased as social structures become more egalitarian. In addition to constituting the first generalizable demonstration of this relationship, our findings serve to inform the related question of why eye contact is deferentially avoided in some human cultures, while eye contact is both frequent and even encouraged in others.

Keywords: contact tolerance; eye contact; eye; nonhuman primates

Journal Title: Scientific Reports
Year Published: 2020

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.