Gaze Behavior in Pedophilia and Hebephilia: How Task Instruction and Sexual Interest Shape Viewing of Prepubescent and Pubescent Stimuli

Visuospatial attentional processes are central in eye-tracking research of deviant sexual interest, yet it remains unclear to what extent task instructions modulate early (time to first fixation; number of first fixation) and late visuospatial attention (relative fixation time). We examined gaze behavior in individuals with pedophilic, hebephilic, and teleiophilic sexual interests while viewing prepubescent, early pubescent, and adult stimuli under free-viewing and forced-choice (attractiveness rating) conditions. We additionally assessed viewing time (VT) as an established indirect measure of sexual interest. Pedophilic and teleiophilic participants showed earlier orienting toward their preferred age category, whereas gaze patterns in the hebephilic group were inconsistent and differed from the VT results. Late visuospatial attentional indices such as relative fixation time indicated that pedophilic participants fixated roughly equally across all age categories, whereas hebephilic and teleiophilic participants fixated longer on adult stimuli. Within the present experimental design, the forced-choice condition was associated with more pronounced group-related effects and shorter times to first fixation, irrespective of group and stimulus type. These findings may provide preliminary indications of the potential sensitivity of this task context for early visuospatial attention, while alternative explanations and limitations of the experimental design are discussed. This study contributes to the limited eye-tracking literature on deviant sexual interest by explicitly considering both pedophilic and hebephilic sexual interest.