Abstract: PURPOSE: Automatic detection of potential threats in crowds is essential for survival. Our prior research has revealed that fearful faces “pop out” of crowds and capture attention even without awareness, and such effects are pronounced in individuals with high trait anxiety. The current study further examines whether nonconscious attentional capture by fearful faces can modulate gaze behavior, and assess the association of this effect with trait anxiety across individuals.
METHODS: A fearful face within a crowd of neutral or fearful faces forms either a pop-out or a non-pop-out display. In the initial nonconscious phase, all faces were fully suppressed from visual awareness using the sandwich-masking technique. In the subsequent phase, the target face was unmasked while the crowds remained invisible. Participants’ free gaze movement across the two phrases was recorded and analyzed. Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory was administrated to divide participants into high- and low-trait anxiety groups.
RESULTS: Among individuals with high trait anxiety, a fully suppressed fearful face presented within an invisible pop-out display attracted the orienting of gaze even from the nonconscious phase, yielding a higher proportion of fixation on the fearful target area in the pop-out than in the non-pop-out display. Conversely, individuals with low trait anxiety showed gaze avoidance of the target, with less fixation on the pop-out target area compared with the non-pop-out condition.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide compelling evidence that nonconscious fearful faces within invisible crowds can automatically guide attention and direct gaze orienting, and underscore the significant role of trait anxiety in shaping distinct gaze behavior.

Key words: Gaze behavior, Trait anxiety, Visual awareness, Fearful faces