Eye contact is essential for social cognition, acting as an important tool for social communication. While differences in face scanning patterns concerning familiarity have been thoroughly investigated, the impact of facial similarity on gaze behavior has not been examined yet. We addressed this topic by recording subjects’ eye-directed gazing while looking at faces that were individually created systematically varying in terms of similarity to the self-face and familiarity. Subjects’ self-faces were morphed into three other faces including a close friend of the same sex. Afterwards, they rated similarity to their self-face of those morphed face stimuli in a separate rating task. Our results show a general preference for the eyes’ area as well as differences regarding fixation patterns depending on similarity to the self-face. The lower the similarity to the self-face, the more fixations on the eyes’ area. Subjects’ ratings followed a linear line, indicating well-pronounced face perception. Nevertheless, other faces were rated faster than the self-face independent of familiarity, while morphed faces got the slowest ratings. Our results mirror the importance of similarity to the self-face as a factor shaping the way we look at the eyes of others explaining variance apart from familiarity.

眼神交流对于社交认知至关重要，是社交交流的重要工具。虽然已经彻底研究了关于熟悉程度的面部扫描方式的差异，但尚未研究面部相似度对凝视行为的影响。我们通过记录对象的视线凝视来解决这个主题，同时观察个体在与自我面孔的相似性和熟悉程度方面有系统地变化的个体面孔。受试者的自我面孔被变形为另外三张面孔，包括同性的密友。之后，他们在单独的评估任务中对那些变形的面部刺激的自我面部进行了相似度评估。我们的结果表明，人们普遍偏爱眼睛的区域，以及根据与自我面部的相似性而对注视方式的差异。与自脸的相似度越低，眼睛区域的注视就越多。受试者的评分遵循一条直线，表明其面部表情清晰。尽管如此，与熟悉程度无关，其他人脸的评价要比自我人脸快，而变形的人脸的评价最低。我们的结果反映了与人脸相似的重要性，这是塑造我们观察他人眼睛以解释除熟悉之外的差异的一种因素。