Curious eyes: Individual differences in personality predict eye movement behavior in scene-viewing

Visual exploration is driven by two main factors – the stimuli in our environment, and our own individual interests and intentions. Research investigating these two aspects of attentional guidance has focused almost exclusively on factors common across individuals. The present study took a different tack, and examined the role played by individual differences in personality. Our findings reveal that trait curiosity is a robust and reliable predictor of an individual’s eye movement behavior in scene-viewing. These findings demonstrate that who a person is relates to how they move their eyes.

► The relation between personality and visual exploration is investigated.
► Individual differences in perceptual curiosity are correlated with visual exploration.
► An individual’s personality can modulate attentional guidance.