This paper integrates two previously separate research traditions: spatial orienting within the visual cueing paradigm and social cognition, focusing on the tendency to attend in the direction of another person's gaze. The authors adapted cueing methodologies from mainstream attention research to test the automaticity of orienting in the direction of seen gaze. Three experiments manipulated the direction of gaze in a computerized face, which appeared centrally during a peripheral letter-discrimination task. **Experiment 1** found that participants were faster at discriminating peripheral target letters on the side the computerized face gazed towards, even though the gaze direction did not predict the target side and participants were asked to ignore the face. This suggests reflexive covert and/or overt orienting in the direction of seen gaze, even when participants have no motivation to do so. **Experiment 2** replicated the findings from Experiment 1, but with a longer delay between the appearance of the central face and the target letter. The advantage for congruent trials emerged more slowly, at around 300 msec, suggesting a delayed time-course for the cueing effect. **Experiment 3** tested whether orienting in the direction of seen gaze could arise even when it was counter to participants' intentions. Participants were explicitly instructed to shift attention away from the direction of the face's gaze, but letter discrimination was still faster on the side the face gazed towards at 300 msec, though this advantage disappeared at 700 msec. This suggests that orienting can arise in the direction of seen gaze even when counter to intentions. The experiments illustrate that methods from mainstream attention research can be applied to social cognition, and that studies of spatial attention may benefit from considering its social function.This paper integrates two previously separate research traditions: spatial orienting within the visual cueing paradigm and social cognition, focusing on the tendency to attend in the direction of another person's gaze. The authors adapted cueing methodologies from mainstream attention research to test the automaticity of orienting in the direction of seen gaze. Three experiments manipulated the direction of gaze in a computerized face, which appeared centrally during a peripheral letter-discrimination task. **Experiment 1** found that participants were faster at discriminating peripheral target letters on the side the computerized face gazed towards, even though the gaze direction did not predict the target side and participants were asked to ignore the face. This suggests reflexive covert and/or overt orienting in the direction of seen gaze, even when participants have no motivation to do so. **Experiment 2** replicated the findings from Experiment 1, but with a longer delay between the appearance of the central face and the target letter. The advantage for congruent trials emerged more slowly, at around 300 msec, suggesting a delayed time-course for the cueing effect. **Experiment 3** tested whether orienting in the direction of seen gaze could arise even when it was counter to participants' intentions. Participants were explicitly instructed to shift attention away from the direction of the face's gaze, but letter discrimination was still faster on the side the face gazed towards at 300 msec, though this advantage disappeared at 700 msec. This suggests that orienting can arise in the direction of seen gaze even when counter to intentions. The experiments illustrate that methods from mainstream attention research can be applied to social cognition, and that studies of spatial attention may benefit from considering its social function.