A Competitive Edge: How Social Cues and Spatial Congruence Influence Joint Attention in addressed or witnessed interactions

Joint attention is crucial for the development of social cognition, but whether the type ofrelationship (i.e., cooperative or competitive) or interaction (e.g., addressed or witnessed)modulates joint attention is unclear. This study investigated these factors in 96 neurotypicaladults using a video object-choice task. Here, participants chose between cups based on anactor's pointing cue, either while being addressed or witnessing an interaction between twoactors. Participants were primed about the actor's cooperative or competitive intent.Experiment 1 found no significant interaction between these factors. However, Experiment 2,considering spatial attention (cue direction), revealed nuanced effects. In addressedinteractions, more social cues led to faster responses, especially during spatially congruentcooperative trials. In witnessed interactions, responses were faster to spatially incongruentcues in cooperative trials and vice versa in competitive trials. These findings suggest thatjoint attention is not solely a passive response to social cues, but is actively shaped by thesocial context and spatial configuration, highlighting how individuals actively interpret andadapt to others attentional cues.