Attention Pattern Changes to Threatening Crime Information: An Eye-Tracking Study with Deceptive Individuals

Abstract

The present study investigated changes in individuals’ attention pattern for information related to the crime using an eye-tracker device. Comparisons were conducted between two groups according to the threat level of the crime information presented: a high threat- deception (HT) group who lied about knowledge of high-threat crime scenes (e.g., assaults), and low threat-deception (LT) groups who lied about the knowledge of low-threat crime scenes (e.g., burglary). Each group was presented with left-right positions of the two stimuli (relevant and irrelevant) for 6 seconds dwell time on each stimulus was measured in both, the early and the late phase with 3 seconds as a reference point. Results revealed that the HT groups showed no differences in dwell time between relevant and irrelevant stimuli in the early phase, but they spent more time in gazing relevant stimuli than irrelevant ones in the late phase. Meanwhile, the LT groups showed no dwell time differences between relevant and irrelevant stimuli in both phases. These findings suggest that only the HT group showed attentional avoidance from crime information. It might be concluded that a high threat perception can produce an avoidance reaction to threatening crime information due to the fear of the deception being detected.