Anchoring gaze when categorizing faces’ sex: Evidence from eye-tracking data

Previous research has shown that during recognition of frontal views of faces, the preferred landing positions of eye fixations are either on the nose or the eye region. Can these findings generalize to other facial views and a simpler perceptual task? An eye-tracking experiment investigated categorization of the sex of faces seen in four views. The results revealed a strategy, preferred in all views, which consisted of focusing gaze within an ‘infraorbital region’ of the face. This region was fixated more in the first than in subsequent fixations. Males anchored gaze lower and more centrally than females.