Eye Contact and Culture

This paper will look at the importance of eye contact and examine its role in several different situations, and how the technological advances in use today, where video conferencing or interactions between man and machine are required, also need to take eye contact into consideration in their design. The conclusions drawn in all of these studies show that eye contact is important in making a connection between the speaker and the audience, and the more eye contact given, the better the response obtained.

Making eye contact is probably the most powerful method of establishing some form of communication between humans, and studies have shown that right from birth, human babies prefer to look at faces and engage them in eye contact, and from an early age, show enhanced neural processing of direct gaze (Farroni, Csibra, Simion and Johnson). How we look at people when we first come face to face with them can have a profound effect on whether the encounter is a positive, effective one, or a negative experience, leading possibly to embarrassment and rejection (Bremer). Looking people in the eye is the first step towards making friendships and positive impressions. Long periods of eye contact may be perceived as being threatening or embarrassing, so initial eye contacts should be of short duration. Failing to look people in the eye may give a unfavorable impression, and they may wonder what the person has to hide. Refusing to make eye contact also suggests arro

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at to skip over. Four of five seconds of sustained eye contact is ideal for connecting with an audience member. It allows the speaker to see acknowledgment in the eye of the audience member, rather than just skipping over the audience without making any significant eyes contact with any one member, but at the same time, not spending long enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable. There is a tendency among presenters to look more at certain audience members than others - at those who give them the most affirmation (Bailey). However, a good presenter avoids this and tries to give each audience member equal eye contact time. If the speaker ignores eye contact with certain people, they will tend to tune out to what is being said. Equal eye contact demotes fairness in the speaker. In the classroom, eye contact between teacher and student is imperative, and teachers in all disciplines in secondary schools have always been advised to develop "the look" as a part of their persona (Ledbury, White and Darn). The look can have many meanings to the students such as, "don't do that again" and "be quiet" and "pay attention to me" and in this respect it serves a disciplinary function. Ledbury, White and Darn have found many instanc

Category: Psychology - E