ABSTRACT
Gaze processing plays an essential role during social interactions. Here, it was investigated whether variations in attachment style (secure, anxious and avoidant) were associated with differential expressions of sympathetic autonomic arousal upon live dyadic gaze interactions. To do so, 47 participants were presented with either reciprocated or unreciprocated eye gaze from a live model and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were collected. In line with previous observations, SCRs and subjective ratings of arousal were higher in response to reciprocated, compared to unreciprocated gaze. In terms of the modulation by attachment style, it was shown that participants with low attachment security and high attachment avoidance displayed overall higher sympathetic arousal upon the presentation of the live dyadic gaze cues, irrespective of whether the observed model showed reciprocal or unreciprocated gaze. Together, these observations indicate that attachment styles have a modulatory effect on individuals' psychophysiological responses to dyadic gaze interactions.