Uniform A or B? Your decision could be controlled by this

In a collaborative study by Waseda University, the University of Western Ontario, Kochi Institute of Technology and Shizuoka University, researchers discovered that the tendency to choose an object with longer gazing time, which is known as the gaze manipulation effect, is more effective for visually advertising sport items to people who have experience playing sports than to those who are casually interested or those who like fashion. The results of this study could have possible applications in the sports market.

The study examined whether the preference of individuals for soccer uniforms with interest in fashion and/or sports is influenced by the gaze manipulation effect. University students with normal to near normal vision participated in the experiment, and were asked to select one of the two European teams’ soccer uniforms. Each uniform was shown either on the left or right side of the screen six times with different durations (0.9 seconds vs. 0.3 seconds). The students were asked to (or not to) fix their gaze directly at them. They also answered questionnaires designed to assess their interests in soccer and/or fashion.

The results showed that the gaze manipulation effect did not make much difference for those who had little interest in fashion or watching/playing soccer but had significant influence for those with experience playing soccer. Although further research is required, this study will serve as a base for understanding the mechanism of the phenomenon. In the future, the study is expected to expand in other areas, such as individual sports like boxing, and even for personal interests such as musical performance.

This research paper was published in the e-version of Japan Society of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences’ International Journal of Sport and Health Science on January 20.

Paper information

• Title: The Effect of Gaze Manipulation on Preference Decisions: A Study of Football Shirt Evaluation – Football Players Come to Like Uniforms as They Look at Them
• Yoshiyuki Saito¹⁾, Sunao Uchida²⁾, Yoshiko Yabe^{3) 4) 5)}, Makoto Miyazaki^{4) 6)}

  1) Graduate School of Sport Sciences, Waseda University 2) Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University 3) The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario 4) Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology 5) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 6) Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Informatics, Shizuoka University