People wearing sunglasses ‘more likely to stare at sexually provocative images’ study claims

The study set out to discover what happend when eyes weren’t being watched

In total, 56 people took part in the study (Getty Images)

With summer just around the corner, many people will be donning their sunglasses more regularly as the sun makes more of an appearance, but wearing sunglasses may have a creepy effect on people, a study has revealed.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia discovered that people are more likely to stare at sexually provocative images when they are wearing sunglasses and think that others can’t see their eyes.

In the study, the researchers set out to understand how sunglasses alter our attention and “what happens when eyes are camouflaged.”

Participants in the study either wore sunglasses or glasses with transparent lenses whilst being presented with either sexually provocative or neutral images.

A group of 56 students took part, all of whom were in the presence of another person when they viewed the images.

The participants were sat in front of a screen, with an experimenter sitting behind them.

They knew that this person was observing their eyes but did not know that their eye gaze was also being surreptitiously monitored and recorded in both conditions.

Results showed that people spontaneously looked more and for longer at the sexually provocative images when their eyes were hidden behind sunglasses.

‘People spontaneously looked more and for longer at the sexually provocative images when their eyes were camouflaged by sunglasses,’ the researchers revealed.

According to researchers, study also suggested that this finding provides evidence that “covert attention operates in service of overt social attention, and suggests that decoupling overt and covert attention is much more prevalent than previously assumed.”