Do the eyes have it?

The eyes hold our mystical place in our consciousness. We ascribe great power to the eye and have used it as an insignia to denote wisdom and understanding. Much is made of “eye contact” as parents encourage their children to make eye contact with others as a way of connecting and speakers and business people use eye contact as a tool for persuasion. While the eyes undoubtedly hold great psychological significance, it might also be that making eye contact in a situation where you are trying to persuade them could be counterproductive.

This was studied by researchers who used state of the art eye tracking technology to track eye movements in a variety of situations where persuasion was involved. This was done by having the subjects watch videos of different speakers who were trying to persuade people on a range of social and political topics.

The subjects were then interviewed as to how they felt about the presentations they had been viewing.

It was found that eye contact did lead to greater receptiveness to the speaker’s message but only when the viewer already agreed with what the speaker was saying. Additionally, the more time the viewers spent looking into the speaker’s eyes, the less likely they were to change to their opinions to agree with the speaker.

In a second experiment the subjects were instructed to look at either only the speaker’s eyes or only the speaker’s mouth as they presented arguments that were opposed to the subject’s ideas. It was found that maintaining direct eye contact with the speaker was less likely to cause a change in attitude than watching their mouth.

It is possible that where eye contact can reinforce trust or bonding in some circumstances, if there is a difference of opinion then it can imply dominance or intimidation. So the parental “Look at me when I’m talking (lecturing) to you” may be counterproductive. Equally the earnest “trainer” brought in to change a few work practices in your office might do well not to try and show how simpatico he is with you by making eye contact. Instead of “look into my eyes” it seems a more powerful persuasive dictum might be, “read my lips”.