Do we look at persons currently or previously affected by COVID-19 the same way as we do with healthy ones? In this eye-tracking study, we investigated how participants (N = 54) looked at faces of individuals presented as “COVID-19 Free”, “Sick with COVID-19”, or “Recovered from COVID-19”. Results showed that participants tend to look at the eyes of COVID-19-free faces longer than at those of both COVID-19-related faces. Crucially, we also found an increase of visual attention for the mouth of the COVID-19-related faces, possibly due to the threatening characterisation of such area as a transmission vehicle for SARS-CoV-2. Thus, by detailing how people dynamically changed the way of looking at faces as a function of the perceived risk of contagion, we provide the first evidence in the literature about the impact of the pandemic on the most basic level of social interaction.

中文翻译：

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对COVID-19的恐惧如何改变我们看待人脸的方式

我们是否以与健康人群相同的方式对待目前或以前受COVID-19影响的人群？在这项眼动追踪研究中，我们调查了参与者（N = 54）如何看待呈现为“ COVID-19 Free”，“与COVID-19生病”或“从COVID-19中康复”的个体的面部。结果表明，与无COVID-19的两张相关面孔相比，参与者倾向于看更长的眼睛。至关重要的是，我们还发现与COVID-19相关的面孔的嘴巴在视觉上的注意力增加了，这可能是由于该地区作为SARS-CoV-2的传播媒介所具有的威胁特征。因此，通过详细介绍人们如何根据感知的传染风险动态改变看脸的方式，