Gaze acts from an early age as a cue to orient attention and, thereafter, to infer our social
partners' intentions, thoughts, and emotions. Variants of the attentional orienting paradigm
have been used to study the orienting capabilities associated to eye gaze. However, to date,
it is still unclear whether this methodology truly assesses “social-specific” processes
exclusively involved in attention to eye-gaze or the operation of domain-general attentional
processes. The present study provides a comprehensive meta-analysis indicating that eye …

Gaze acts from an early age as a cue to orient attention and, thereafter, to infer our social
partners' intentions, thoughts, and emotions. Variants of the attentional orienting paradigm
have been used to study the orienting capabilities associated to eye gaze. However, to date,
it is still unclear whether this methodology truly assesses an attribute of social cognition in
this stimulus. The present study provides a comprehensive meta-analysis showing that
nonsocial directional stimuli, such as arrows, produce an effect identical to that of eye gaze …