The gaze-cueing effect among different profiles of problematic social media use

Previous studies have found that humans' visual attention can be oriented by others' eye gaze, modulated by individual differences and experimental conditions such as facial expressions. This study investigated whether problematic social media use (PSMU) influences the gaze-cueing effect across different conditions (e. g., facial expressions, presentation mode of the cue). Sixty-one participants completed gaze-cueing experiments with varying facial expressions and presentation modes (i. e., supraliminal/subliminal). Latent profile analysis identified highand low-severity profiles of PSMU. Results showed that individuals with higher severity PSMU exhibited a greater gaze-cueing effect for faces showing the emotion of fear compared to other expressions, particularly under supraliminal conditions. These findings suggest that problematic social media users are more responsive to fearful gaze cues and contribute to understanding of both PSMU mechanisms and gaze-cueing effect modulators.