Gaze Cueing is the way in which we pay particular attention to the gaze and line of sight of others when looking at a face, focusing in on this element and often finding our own gaze drawn by someone else’s.
Scientists have shown that the human gaze is an important social stimulus on which we learn to focus right from when we are born. As children, we utilise the gaze of our parents to learn about the world, read expressions, etc. In fact, eyes are a considerable source of information regarding emotions, intentions, beliefs and desires of others, as a lot of expressiveness is portrayed through the eyes. Studies have shown that 55% of information transmitted during a face to face conversation relies on visual contact. The eyes are a central factor in our social interactions and have an immense power over us: immediately attracting our attention amongst all facial features or other stimuli.
There are numerous communication and marketing techniques that make use of Gaze Cueing. For example, websites often use the human face (photos, etc.) in their adverts or on their homepage and are careful to place important elements (such as Call-to-Action buttons, etc.) within the gaze path of the model to help ensure that the website visitor has their gaze automatically drawn towards the desired elements of the page.