Eye Contact: The Core of Interpersonal Relatedness

Abstract

This essay will attempt to show, citing evidence from diverse sources, that eye contact plays a central role in interpersonal relations. The eyes preface most new relationships, overshadowing other sensory inputs while transmitting a wide assortment of emotional cues. Visual behavior may at times prove decisive in assuring survival, in amorous encounters, and in clarifying interpersonal motives. Ocular performance, a final common pathway for many social, cultural and emotional determinants, is a crucial factor in defining relationships and in allowing reciprocal influences to be exchanged as persons relate. In psychiatric patients, ocular behavior may provide clues to diagnosis. A common finding in such persons is gaze aversion, a social avoidance phenomenon which indicates a desire to attenuate the interpersonal experience and thereby decrease anxiety.

Conceptualizing emotion in healthcare interpreting: A normative approach to interpreters’ emotion work

“…When a Deaf storyteller's eye gaze is fixed on his/her hands, the behavior serves the function of marking emphasis in the narrative. However, nonsigning providers may find Deaf patient's or ASL-English interpreter's lack of mutual eye gaze as suggesting a lack of interest or avoidance behaviors [49].…”

“…For example, although eye contact has semantic and syntactic functions in both spoken and signed languages [49], eye gaze patterns in ASL contribute to specific grammatical and pragmatic meanings [50]. For example, when a Deaf storyteller maintains eye gaze with an audience, s/he assumes the role of narrator; in contrast, when the storyteller gazes away from the audience and signs, s/he assumes the role of story character.…”

Reliability of clinical measurements used in the determination of facial indices

“…At first encounter between persons, eye contact is predominant and the observer scans the face quickly to determine openness to interaction (Burget and Mennick, 1994;Willis and Todorov, 2006). The eyes preface new relationships, overshadowing other sensory inputs while transmitting a wide assortment of emotional cues (Grumet, 1983). The eyes play an essential role in face recognition and are more readily visible in determining the facial type than both zygion landmarks, which are only visible from a direct frontal view, when the hair is not obscuring the region.…”

Culture and listeners’ gaze responses to stuttering

“…It has been long known that human gaze behaviours have communicative and emotional effects. For example, making eye contact can facilitate interpersonal communication (Grumet 1983, Krantz et al 1983, Vertegaal et al 2001), deliver social and emotional content (Bailenson et al 2003, Grossmann et al 2008), increase one's attractiveness (Kampe et al 2001), indicate love and intimacy (Goldstein et al 1976, Cordell and McGahan 2004), facilitate gender categorization (Macrae et al 2002), facilitate the perception of emotions involved with approach motivation (e.g., anger and joy) but not avoidance‐motivated emotions (e.g., fear and sadness) (Adams and Kleck 2003), and have an effect on observers’ emotional responses together with facial expressions (Bayliss et al 2007). On the contrary, avoiding eye contact may have negative implications for these social/emotional aspects.…”