To Tell Meaning, Feeling and Intent, Learn to Read the Body Language of Eye Contact
Page 2 of Eye Contact Body Language
Everything You need To know About Eye Contact Body Language
Eye contact body language is powerful and intimate. The amount of time we spend looking at the other person when in conversation, and the amount of time they spend looking at us, tells us a lot.
People who like one another spend a long time looking at each other when talking. The amount of time a person spends looking at you is a vital sign for singles dating both online and off– looking at you a lot = great.
Maintaining eye contact is a sign of favour and trustworthiness. Conversely, spending a lot of time looking away from the person you’re talking to will make them think you dislike them and are untrustworthy.
So, just how much time should you spend looking at the other person? 60 to 70% eye contact is advisable when aiming to build rapport with the other person. This length of time will tell someone you like them (which will make them like you in return).
Whether or not you actually do spend this much time looking at another person will also come down to confidence. It can be hard to maintain eye contact when feeling under confident, and it’s worth remembering this about other people. Just because they are looking away often does not necessarily mean they dislike you. They could just be feeling intimidated or under confident. Try to take into account the rest of a person’s body language, as well as what they are saying and also circumstances before concluding that they dislike you. If you correctly deduce that someone is actually okay with you but feels insecure, and you then positively and actively make them feel comfortable, there’ll be sure to think the world of you.
Where to Look
Where you look at someone can communicate different intentions and produce different responses in the receiver.
Power Gaze: If you want to intimidate someone, try holding you gaze between their eyes and their forehead. This gaze is so serious you’ll put up an emotional roadblock to anyone. They’ll have no choice but to feel intimidated. Just make sure you don’t do it to the wrong person!
Social Gaze: Holding your gaze horizontally to the space between a person’s eyes and down to their nose will let them know you’re friendly and non-threatening.
Intimate Gaze: Again holding your gaze horizontally to the region between the eyes but allowing it to drop to the lower body is a clear sign of attraction; it’s the “checking out” zone.
Women Get Away With It: The gals are the lucky ones when it comes to intimate gazing. Where a man’s tunnel vision makes it pretty obvious exactly what he’s looking at, women use peripheral vision, meaning their eyes can be looking at a person’s face whilst their actually checking out something altogether different.
NLP, Gaze Direction and What Someone is Remembering
Not only can the eyes tell us what someone is thinking of us, they can even reveal what someone is remembering. Thanks to some brilliant work from Neuroliguistic Programmers, we now observe the following correlations between eye direction and memory types.
When someone looks up to THEIR left whilst remembering: They are remembering a picture
Straight to their left: They are remembering a sound
Down and to their right: They are remembering a feeling
Down and to their Left: They are talking to themselves