...

How to Maintain Eye Contact

Share your love

We know that is vitally important to maintain eye contact in our communication, but does it mean that staring with unblinking eyes will grant us the favor of others?

Naturally no, at best it will only gain us the reputation of being fearless and very direct. Eye contact is a very emotional thing so maintaining it successfully is walking a fine line between too little and too much. You want to establish your credibility and confidence without being too threatening and direct.

Eye contact is one of the factors that play a critical role in creating rapport and establishing first impressions. The length of the gaze affects the type of relation:

How often should we maintain eye contact?

If we talk numbers, research suggests that maintaining eye contact between 60-70 percent of the time is ideal for creating rapport.

More than 2/3 of the time either shows a very friendly or hostile attitude. How to notice the difference Believe me, if someone is hostile towards you, you’ll feel it.

Many other nonverbal cues will indicate that kind of attitude. One of them is the differences in the size of the pupils.

Too Little Eye Contact

If you maintain low eye contact, less than 1/3 of the time of conversation – you’ll probably be perceived as unfriendly, introverted, indecisive, and not very trustworthy in general.

I don’t need to tell you it’s a very unnerving feeling to talk to someone who won’t meet your gaze. Let’s put numbers aside because let’s face it – it’s all very nice for research but we can’t truly measure it during an actual interaction.

So to say it in simple words: if you want to create rapport and trust with your gaze you should strive to make as much eye contact as you can – So long as you feel comfortable enough to do so and without threatening the other person.

If you know yourself to be a little shy you probably need to maintain eye contact longer. If, on the other hand, you often see people avert their gaze and try to ‘get away’ from yours, maybe you’re overdoing it.

Too Much Eye Contact

Let’s talk a little about what happens when you overdo eye contact. As the saying goes “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” so it goes even with “good body language”. 

Eye contact is a very emotional thing, and when you make too much of it, you distort the message of friendliness to something more threatening or just plain weird. Let’s call the time it’s socially appropriate to look at someone – the ‘moral looking time’.

This moral-looking time can vary dramatically because it may be affected by many factors: How well do know this person? What is your relation to him? What is your status compared to theirs (superior–subordinate situations)? Is it a group of people you’re looking at or just a single person? Is it male or female? How close do you stand to that person? What is appropriate by culture and custom?

These questions and more affect the moral looking time and our comfort in making eye contact in a current situation. We need to consider them and understand what kind of message we may send with ‘too much eye contact’.

For example, it will be extremely weird and uncomfortable to maintain eye contact more than a split-second with a stranger on an elevator. Next time you’re in one, pay attention to where other people look in this uncomfortable situation.

The issue of culture is also a big one because in some cultures it’s considered rude to maintain eye contact or even create one (in Japan, for example, the custom is to look at the neck, rather than the eyes, during conversation).

If we talk about gender, then if it’s a male-female case – prolonged eye contact can send, naturally, a message of sexual interest. Male-to-male lengthy gaze is often considered hostile, and female-to-female usually reveals a more competitive nature.

In work, if you hold your gaze too much with your superior you send a message of defiance and disagreement. With your subordinate, it can be considered a reprimanding or suspicious attitude.

Before We Jump to Conclusions

Don’t let these factors confuse you or make you start calculating how long do you need to look at someone. You already know instinctively what an appropriate and inappropriate gaze is.

I just want you to consider the message you want to send: If your goal is to intimidate, so holding a staring, unblinking gaze is the way to go (if you have the guts to hold it.. If you want to create rapport and trust – maintain healthy and comfortable eye contact, you don’t need to count the seconds.

Share your love
Stefan Speaks AI
Stefan Speaks AI
Articles: 275

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign up and Get your Free Gift Package

Seraphinite AcceleratorOptimized by Seraphinite Accelerator
Turns on site high speed to be attractive for people and search engines.