This paper explores the automatic reflexive visuospatial orienting in response to seen gaze, bridging two research areas: spatial orienting in visual cueing paradigms and social cognition. Three experiments manipulated gaze direction in a computerized face during a peripheral letter-discrimination task. Experiments 1 and 2 found faster discrimination on the side the face gazed towards, despite participants being instructed to ignore the face. This suggests reflexive covert or overt orienting in the direction of seen gaze, even without strategic motivation. Experiment 3 found faster discrimination on the side the face gazed towards even when participants knew the target was more likely on the opposite side, indicating orienting can occur counter to intentions. These findings show that mainstream attention research methods can be applied to social cognition, highlighting the social function of spatial attention. The experiments demonstrate that gaze perception can trigger automatic reflexive orienting, even when the observer has no intention to orient in that direction. The results support the idea that shared attention mechanisms are specialized and automatic, as proposed by Baron-Cohen. The studies illustrate that spatial orienting in response to gaze can be reflexive and automatic, even when the gaze direction is uninformative or counter to intentions. The findings contribute to understanding the social function of spatial attention and the mechanisms underlying shared attention.This paper explores the automatic reflexive visuospatial orienting in response to seen gaze, bridging two research areas: spatial orienting in visual cueing paradigms and social cognition. Three experiments manipulated gaze direction in a computerized face during a peripheral letter-discrimination task. Experiments 1 and 2 found faster discrimination on the side the face gazed towards, despite participants being instructed to ignore the face. This suggests reflexive covert or overt orienting in the direction of seen gaze, even without strategic motivation. Experiment 3 found faster discrimination on the side the face gazed towards even when participants knew the target was more likely on the opposite side, indicating orienting can occur counter to intentions. These findings show that mainstream attention research methods can be applied to social cognition, highlighting the social function of spatial attention. The experiments demonstrate that gaze perception can trigger automatic reflexive orienting, even when the observer has no intention to orient in that direction. The results support the idea that shared attention mechanisms are specialized and automatic, as proposed by Baron-Cohen. The studies illustrate that spatial orienting in response to gaze can be reflexive and automatic, even when the gaze direction is uninformative or counter to intentions. The findings contribute to understanding the social function of spatial attention and the mechanisms underlying shared attention.