Do Eye Movements Predict Beliefs? A Bio-behavioural Investigation on Implicit Attitudes

Implicit social cognition is an empirical phenomenon encompassing the effects of experience on judgements and decisions. We evaluate whether eye movements relate to implicit associations according to embodied cognition theories, claiming that cognition directly affects the content of sensory-motor systems. We propose that a psychological attribute, such as an implicit attitude towards an ethnic category, influences individuals’ eye movements during the visual exploration of related relevant stimuli. By using eye-tracking methodology in a bio-behavioural study, we found that participants with high implicit attitudes towards an ethnic category performed high fixation duration towards the stimuli that disconfirmed their implicit attitude. The results provide evidence for an association between social beliefs and eye movements, thus highlighting the oculo-sensory-motor embodiment of social cognition.