Abstract:
Preliminary research suggests that body posture can impact affect, cognition, and behaviour. Slumped and upright postures can influence direction of eye gaze in a downward or straight ahead position. Gaze direction may play a significant role in the observed relationships between posture and affect, cognition, and behaviour. Several theories support this hypothesis, including the theory of embodied cognition, the facial feedback hypothesis, the broaden-and-build model of positive emotions, and the influence of environmental illumination on psychological states. No research has yet investigated the effects of eye gaze direction within this context. The current study aimed to determine whether gaze direction had an influence on mood and other psychological states and behaviours independent of the effects of an upright or slumped head position, and to test theoretical explanations for these relationships. Eighty-seven healthy participants completed baseline self-report measures of mood, emotions, power, and physical symptoms before being randomised to either the forward or downward gazing group. Within each group, all participants adopted both slumped and upright head positions during the laboratory session. Twice during the session participants completed the behavioural measures of a reading task and a speech task involving Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) images followed by self-report measures of mood, emotions, power, physical symptoms, visual processing biases, and drawings of the self. Eye movement when participants were looking at the TAT images was a physiological measure. A number of significant effects were obtained across the self-report, behavioural, and physiological measures used in the current study. Gazing downward led to worse mood, less high arousal positive emotion, lower feelings of power, and speaking fewer words during the speech tasks than gazing forward, independent of head position. There were also effects of gaze direction on high arousal affect, singular personal pronoun use, and duration of gaze toward the periphery of the images, although these effects were dependent on head position. Lastly, a slumped head position was associated with more frequent gazing toward the left peripheral region of the images than an upright head position, independent of whether participants were gazing forward or downward. The theory of embodied cognition provided the best explanation for these findings. Overall, the results suggest that eye gaze direction can influence psychological states and behaviour, and may play a significant role in the observed effects between posture and mood. These findings may have implications for alleviating negative mood. Future research could assess the effectiveness of gaze direction training in improving mood among healthy and depressed individuals.