![]() For example, in Kano’s research, chimps that had experienced social deprivation (having been raised in a research lab) were less attentive to both eyes and mouths than other chimps. “On the other hand, bonobos have a strong tendency to look at the eyes but not the mouth - this is more humanlike.”Īs with us, though, both species also show variation from ape to ape. “Chimps have a strong tendency not to look at the eyes but look at the mouth - this is less humanlike,” Kano explains. His research has found that bonobos - which, along with chimpanzees, are our closest primate cousins - have a greater desire for social affiliation than chimps, and are also closer to us in their eye-contact behavior. Fumihiro Kano, a comparative psychologist at Japan’s Kyoto University and Kumamoto Sanctuary for chimpanzees and bonobos, uses eye tracking to study what primates’ eye movements reveal about their social relations and mental processes. It’s not only humans who show differences in eye-contact preferences. How to Deal With the Eye-Contact Awkwardness of Long Hallways and Streets “In everyday life, such oversensitivity may lead to attempts to decrease one’s arousal levels,” the researchers wrote, “and first-hand reports suggest that simply avoiding to attend to the eyes of others is one common strategy.” Related Stories In a study published last month in the journal Scientific Reports, Hadjikhani and her colleagues found that the brains of people with autism showed unusually high activity in the subcortical pathway, which processes facial expressions. We’re all wired to process faces (even sometimes seeing them in random patterns and objects), but in people with autism, it happens a little differently. While most people will eventually become uncomfortable with sustained eye contact, the threshold for this discomfort is lower for people with autism, who “are hypersensitive to eye contact,” she says. The data showed that withdrawal, which is related to feelings of inhibition and vulnerability, was the key feature that explained the desire to avoid eye contact.įor people with autism, meanwhile, the stress of eye contact stems from the intimacy that it fosters, explains Nouchine Hadjikhani, the director of Harvard’s Neurolimbic Research Lab. The study authors, including Jari Hietanen, a psychologist at Finland’s University of Tampere, also analyzed two specific aspects of neuroticism: withdrawal and volatility. The same subjects also considered it more pleasant to face someone whose eyes were averted. In one study, for example, the higher a participant’s level of neuroticism, the more quickly they felt compelled to break another person’s gaze. So are neuroticism, shyness, social anxiety, and autism. ![]() Psychopathy, PTSD, and alexithymia (sometimes known as “ emotional blindness”) are often associated with greater discomfort with eye contact. One person’s friendly eye contact is another person’s excruciating moment, depending on your personality and cognitive traits. And you don’t have much time to get it right, either: Research has shown that it takes just a few seconds for a gaze to go from comfortable to creepy.Ĭompounding the problem is the fact that we all have varying levels of comfort when it comes to locking eyes. Getting it just right, though, can be a challenge - especially when you consider that so many people find the whole thing awkward to begin with (even rock stars have trouble). Eye contact is one of those Goldilocks things: Too much, and people find you intense too little, and people think you’re shifty.
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