Children around the world process gaze in similar ways

Large cross-cultural study finds common 'processing signature' of gaze following despite differences in accuracy and development

To the Point

• Universal process: Across 17 communities spanning five continents, children showed the same performance pattern that was predicted by a computational model of gaze following.
• Broad sample: A total of 1,377 children from different cultural backgrounds took part in the study.
• Developmental gains: Precision improved with age in every community, with a high degree of overlap between individuals.
• Device familiarity: Children with access to touchscreens were more precise. Household size and composition did not seem to impact performance.

Understanding where someone else is looking and what they are paying attention to is a fundamental skill for communication and cooperation. However, most claims about 'universals' in social cognition have been based on data from Western, affluent, urban samples. A new study broadens this perspective by testing over 1,300 children from 17 communities spanning 14 countries and five continents using a culturally adaptable, tablet-based task.

In the study, children played a 'balloon game' on a touchscreen. A balloon fell behind a hedge while an on-screen agent tracked its trajectory with their eyes. The children had to touch the spot on the hedge where they thought the balloon had landed, using only the agent’s eye movements as a cue. The researchers measured imprecision — the distance between the true landing location and where the child touched the screen — and analysed performance using a computational model.

A universal processing signature

Despite differences in average accuracy and developmental timing across communities, all sites showed the same model-predicted performance signature: precision decreased when the target was farther from the centre of the screen in relation to the agent’s position. “We saw the same processing signature that our computational model predicts across 17 communities spanning five continents,” said lead author Manuel Bohn. "This consistency suggests the existence of a common cognitive mechanism underlying gaze following."

In every community, older children were more precise than younger ones. However, there was extensive overlap between individuals: some four-year-olds outperformed older children within and across communities. The average differences between communities were smaller than the differences between individuals, highlighting the importance of measuring and modelling individual variability. "Finding evidence of a shared process, even when accuracy varies, brings us closer to identifying true universals of human cognition," said senior author Daniel Haun. "It also demonstrates the need for methods that capture individual differences, not just community averages."

Device familiarity matters

Children with access to touchscreens performed more precisely on the tablet-based task, regardless of the community they lived in. Training trials confirmed that children at all sites could accurately touch visible targets, suggesting that familiarity with the device primarily influenced how precisely children could execute their intended responses. "Device experience improved precision, but it didn't change or obscure the underlying process," said co-author Julia Prein. "This helps us to distinguish between measurement effects and cognition, and to design fairer cross-cultural studies."

Culturally sensitive measurement

Task visuals and audio were adapted with local collaborators allowing for comparable measurements across diverse cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic contexts. "This study is a prime example for successful large-scale collaboration in developmental science. Working with a large team of international collaborators enabled us to respect community contexts while maintaining scientific comparability," said co-senior author Roman Stengelin. "Our open materials and data make it easy to apply this approach to new sites, age groups, and related social-cognitive skills." A customizable version of the task is freely available as a website for researchers to use.

The study provides evidence for a universal principle of basic social cognition: children worldwide use similar cognitive processes to interpret gaze, despite variations in accuracy. The authors emphasise that the universal claim relates to the processing signature rather than identical performance, and suggest that more detailed measures of everyday social interaction could reveal further factors contributing to individual differences.