Date of Award
1-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department/Program
Psychology
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Peter Vietze
Committee Member
Ruth Propper
Committee Member
Nicole Lytle
Abstract
Eye-tracking is becoming more prevalent in studying various phenomena in psychology. The physiological behavior of eye gaze can reveal psychological processes that may not be conscious. The current study explored whether gaze behavior can be linked to political attitudes. Participants looked at pictures of political candidates with an audio clip of one of their speeches playing as an eye-tracker recorded their gaze behavior. Participants were asked to rate the candidates on an attitude scale. Results showed that only attitudes toward Donald Trump were correlated with gaze duration. In addition, the survey showed that participants gave significantly more extreme answers (either a 1 or a 6) for Trump. This suggests that gaze behavior may correlate only with strong attitudes. This study introduces a possible new way to study attitudes toward visual stimuli.
Recommended Citation
Melon, Joseph C., "Using Eye-Tracking to Explore Preference for High Value Visual Stimuli" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 108.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/108