![]() ![]() (2014) found a greater pupillary contagion response in humans and chimpanzees when observing pupillary changes of their own species compared to when observing the other species. Providing further evidence for the role of familiarity, Kret et al. Pupillary contagion is also stronger amongst those who score higher on empathy when viewing highly expressive speakers ( Kang and Wheatley, 2017). There are still a number of questions surrounding the pupillary contagion phenomenon and what it reflects, but it is enhanced in adults when observing those from a familiar race and when there is a greater sense of trust in the observer ( Kret et al., 2015 Wehebrink et al., 2018). The pupillary contagion response is based on observing changes in the pupil sizes of others. Pupil dilation is associated with activity in the locus coeruleus in the noradrenergic system, which is associated with allocation of attention (see Laeng et al., 2012 for a review), suggesting it might be involved in attention to significant stimuli. Changes in pupil size can therefore be due to a number of states and to observing stimuli of significance to the observer ( Laeng et al., 2012 Prochazkova and Kret, 2017). Pupils constrict or dilate in response to changes in light exposure, but under stable light conditions, pupil sizes change on the basis of a number of cognitive and emotional factors such as increased working memory load, changes in attention ( Hess and Polt, 1964 Bradshaw, 1967 Binda and Murray, 2015), responses to arousing and emotional stimuli ( Hess and Polt, 1960 Hess et al., 1965 Partala and Surakka, 2003), when surprised or uncertain ( Lavín et al., 2013), and when experiencing aesthetic appreciation of artistic images ( Kuchinke et al., 2009). Pupillary changes are involuntary responses controlled by the autonomic nervous system (e.g. It occurs across the lifespan and emerges early in life as it has been found with infants as young as 4 to 6 months of age ( Fawcett et al., 2016, 2017). ‘Pupillary contagion’ is a term used to describe the similar change in pupil size when observing someone else’s pupils constrict or dilate ( Simms, 1967 Hess, 1975 Harrison et al., 2009). Contagious responses can also occur on a physiological level without intention or awareness, including changes in heart rate ( Feldman et al., 2011 Helm et al., 2014), neural activity ( Anders et al., 2011) and of interest here, pupil size ( Laeng et al., 2012 Prochazkova and Kret, 2017). Examples include yawns, smiles and gestures, and numerous studies indicate that they are more likely to happen in response to someone we are familiar with or with whom we have an affiliation ( Norscia and Palagi, 2011 Chartrand and Lakin, 2013 Palagi et al., 2014 Mui et al., 2018). Some behaviours are ‘contagious’ occurring involuntarily after viewing someone else engage in those behaviours ( Chartrand and Lakin, 2013). Pupillary contagion, pupillometry, conspecifics, cat person, dog person, pet ownership, empathy In sum, pupillary contagion responses indicate a spontaneous transfer of information about internal states and the findings suggest that humans are sensitive to this across species, regardless of individual preference. Dog affiliation might be associated with less arousal to dog images. Greater dog affiliation was also associated with smaller overall pupil size change to dogs and larger change to humans, but this did not interact with image pupil size. There was greater pupil size change to cats and dogs than to humans, but this might have been due to the varying size and appearance of the cats and dogs. There was an image pupil size effect, but this did not vary by species. Trait empathy, cat and dog affiliation and experience were subsequently measured. Pupil sizes were measured while viewing cat, dog and human images with small, medium and large pupils. We investigated whether the pupillary contagion response occurs for humans viewing familiar species-cats and dogs-and whether it is modulated by preferences for particular species. This involuntary response is reliable between humans but can be affected by familiarity and empathy. When viewing pupil sizes change, our own pupil sizes change, a phenomenon known as pupillary contagion.
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