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 of relationship (i.e. cooperative or competitive) or interaction (e.g. addressed or witnessed) modulates joint attention is unclear. This study investigated these factors in 96 neurotypical adults using a video object-choice task. Here, participants chose between cups based on an actor's pointing cue, either while being addressed or witnessing an interaction between two actors. 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 addressed interactions, more social cues led to faster responses, especially during spatially congruent cooperative trials. In witnessed interactions, responses were faster to spatially incongruent cues in cooperative trials and vice versa in competitive trials. These findings suggest that joint attention is not solely a passive response to social cues, but is actively shaped by the social context and spatial configuration, highlighting how individuals actively interpret and adapt to others' attentional cues.