A double dissociation between self-focused and other-focused attention with higher social anxiety on two “how people see” eye movement measures

This study was designed to investigate the relationships between self-focused attention (SFA), other-focused attention (OFA), scanpath length, and fixation count during free speech tasks in the context of social anxiety and metacognitive beliefs. Thirty-nine participants undertook speech tasks while an advanced eye tracker traced each participant’s visual scanpath and fixation count. We performed multiple regression analyses using generalized linear models to dissect the influences of SFA and OFA under varying levels of social anxiety and metacognitive beliefs. Higher subjective SFA during speech tasks with higher social anxiety was linked solely to a short scanpath. In contrast, higher subjective OFA during speech tasks with higher social anxiety was tied exclusively to high fixation counts. Moreover, higher subjective SFA during speech tasks with more positive metacognitive beliefs about SFA was connected solely to a short scanpath, and more negative metacognitive beliefs about OFA were independently associated solely with high fixation counts. Our findings contribute to the field by illustrating a double dissociation between SFA and OFA in relation to scanpath length and fixation count, a relationship that has not been thoroughly examined with traditional fixation time measures. This study also provides preliminary insights into how specific metacognitive beliefs may influence the visual attention strategies of socially anxious individuals during speech tasks. These findings enhance our understanding of SFA and OFA and offer potential directions for further exploration into interventions for social anxiety disorders.