Social Attention

Imagine the following scenario in a normal conference. One of the participants is walking through the rows of posters when he catches the eye of one of the presenters standing next to his poster. This eye contact signals the beginning of a social interaction, and he asks her if she would like to hear about his poster. The presenter looks at the poster and points to the first section to draw attention to that section. The listener alternates his gaze between the poster and the presenter's face. At the same time, the presenter monitors the listener's gaze to make sure that he is looking at the poster (and therefore paying attention to his message) and looking at him (to show that he understands what you are saying).
While the listener is engaged with the poster and looks away from the presenter, he takes the opportunity to look at his child. If the presenter does not recognize the university on his badge, or if he perceives that the listener is of lower academic rank, he may become more open in his movements and lean towards his poster. Suppose he recognizes the university as a prestigious university or sees that the listener has a higher academic rank. In that case, he may lean more toward the listener and away from the poster. In such cases, the listener now takes over the interaction and directs the presenter's attention to certain parts of the poster, and he now follows with his gaze.
Looking at many such examples, it becomes clear that visual attention is embedded in the social world.