And in face-to-face negotiations, looking a challenger straight in the eye with a reassuring, neutral expression can help you hold your ground. All Rights Reserved. Skip to Main Content Skip to Search. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. Dow Jones. Updated June 11, pm ET.
Sponsored Offers. Things you buy through our links may earn New York a commission. Eye contact is a tricky business, something that feels a lot easier to screw up than it does to get right.
Besides, avoiding eye contact comes off as creepy. On the other hand, though, so does a prolonged, unwavering stare. Which is good to know in theory, but not really all that helpful in practice unless you know what that sweet spot looks like. The study subjects were visitors to the London Science Museum, ranging in age from 11 to For those without a diagnosed mental health condition, avoidance of eye contact could be related to shyness or a lack of confidence.
Looking someone in the eye while speaking can feel uncomfortable for those without a lot of practice making conversation or who tend to prefer not being in the spotlight. Often, people with social anxiety disorder SAD describe looking someone in the eyes as anxiety-provoking and uncomfortable.
This is likely due, in part, to genetic wiring. Research has shown that people diagnosed with SAD have a pronounced fear of direct eye contact. If you have SAD, the part of your brain that warns you of danger your amygdala can be triggered by eye contact. A review published in Current Psychiatry Reports found that social anxiety is related to a mixture of being on guard and avoiding processing emotional social stimuli.
This means that at a party, you might both be on the lookout for people who seem to be judging you, but also try to avoid situations in which you feel you are being judged. In addition, the review showed that socially anxious people tend to avoid maintaining eye contact. Again, this is likely due to the fear of being judged. Research on autism shows that autistic people are hypersensitive to eye contact such that their brains show higher than normal activity in the pathways that process expressions on people's faces.
This means that they may avoid eye contact because it can cause extreme discomfort and even pain. Making eye contact during conversation is an important social skill. It can affect how you are perceived by others both in personal and professional relationships.
In fact, researchers have uncovered numerous benefits of maintaining eye contact during a conversation, including:. We all have varying levels of comfort when it comes to maintaining eye contact. While some people may be predisposed to fearing or avoiding eye contact, most can learn to improve their skills and become better at making good eye contact, starting with:.
People with a diagnosed anxiety disorder may benefit from treatment including cognitive behavioral therapy CNT or medication. Most people with social anxiety disorder can learn to overcome their fear response and maintain better eye contact.
In this way, eye contact is just one aspect of social interaction that you can become desensitized to through practice and exposure. If you've not been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder but still find that eye contact makes you anxious, you can build your tolerance by engaging in increasing amounts of eye contact over time.
Gradually, it should feel less uncomfortable as you do it more often. Start small with people who make you feel less anxious, such as a good friend, and work your way up to more anxiety-provoking situations such as holding eye contact with your work supervisor.
You could even try starting with making eye contact with characters on television, in online videos, or over Facetime or other video chats if real-life eye contact feels too stressful at first. If you find your anxiety rising before or during situations in which you must make eye contact, try practicing deep breathing to slow your heart rate and calm yourself down.
You can and should also look away occasionally. Staring too intensely can make people uncomfortable. Employing these two strategies to improve your eye contact will make your listeners feel more connected to you and increase the likelihood that you will feel more comfortable when speaking—either to a group or to an individual. When speaking to a group of people, instead of thinking of the group as a whole, imagine having individual conversations with one person in the group at a time.
As you speak, choose one person in the group and pretend that you are talking just with that person. Look at that person as you finish your thought or sentence. As you begin a new sentence or idea, choose another person in the group and look them in the eye as you finish your thought.
Make sure that you eventually include everyone in the group. If you find that the severity of your social anxiety is to the point that looking someone in the eye is overly distressing, seek help from a mental health professional or your family doctor. If you have not already been diagnosed with SAD, your symptoms will be assessed and you and your healthcare provider can develop a treatment plan especially for you.
Learn the best ways to manage stress and negativity in your life. Gaze perception in social anxiety and social anxiety disorder.
Front Hum Neurosci.
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