The article “Love Is in the Gaze An Eye-Tracking Study of Love and Sexual Desire” by Bolmont, Cacioppo, and Cacioppo has explored how the human gaze differs depending on whether it is related to the perception of love or lust. The study hypothesized that an individual’s gaze may vary based on his or her intentions of whether one is motivated by love or sexual desire. The participants chosen for the research study were “20 healthy heterosexual college students of mean age of 22.15 years” (Bolmont, Cacioppo, and Cacioppo 1748). 13 subjects of the research were women and 7 were men. The variable examined in the study was the eye gaze shift independence to the stimuli. The stimuli were the images of people. The results of the study demonstrated that “a person’s eye gaze shifts as a function of his or her goal (love vs. lust) when looking at a visual stimulus” (Bolmont, Cacioppo, and Cacioppo 1748).
The study results can be well generalized to the general populations since the researchers have observed the broad trends of human behavior under the influence of feelings stimuli from the point of view of social neuroscience. The scholars have found and justified the common tendencies in the looking patterns of all people. Addressing the study limitations, the small size of the research sample and use of images rather than the evaluation of physical interaction between human subjects may come into attention. However, evaluation of study results analysis suggests the opposite conclusion that the found results are voracious and well-supported. Conducting a follow-up study, I would include the procedures aiming to test the shift in eye gazing patterns in the physical presence of the object of attraction. Still, I believe that the results of this study have a high degree of trustworthiness, and therefore, the follow-up research would provide similar outcomes.
Works Cited
Bolmont, Mylene, John T. Cacioppo, and Stephanie Cacioppo. “Love Is in the Gaze An Eye-Tracking Study of Love and Sexual Desire.” Psychological science 25.9 (2014): 1748-1756. Print.