In typical adults, the perception of eye contact interacts reciprocally with that of facial expression. Several studies have demonstrated that the direction of gaze affects processing of facial expression. Some of these studies indicate that eye contact facilitates the perception of facial expressions associated with approach (e.g., anger) and that it impairs the perception of those associated with avoidance (e.g., fear). However, others report that eye contact generally facilitates expression perception. There is also evidence that facial expression affects the perception of eye contact. The cone of gaze is wider for angry than for fearful or neutral faces, with no difference between the latter two. As suggested in Ewbank et al., the observed effect of facial expression on judgments of eye contact may indicate that typical adults possess an adaptive bias to interpret hostile signals as self-directed. Taken together, these results suggest that typical adults combine information from gaze and expression when judging either gaze or facial expression. This ability may be adaptive, as it may allow individuals to respond selectively to combinations of expression and gaze cues that are important for survival. For example, an angry face with direct gaze may be interpreted as a stronger signal of threat than an angry face with averted gaze because the former indicates that the threat is directed toward the viewer.