Is Eye-Contact Important?

By Alicia Crowder

The windows to the soul. This is a very true description of eyes as there are so many emotions that can be masked in many, many ways, but the most difficult place to mask these is in the eyes. They are that one spot of nakedness which is almost impossible to hide.

Most people in the world have been trained or have naturally found themselves, looking into the eyes of the person with which they speak. It is very common for people to find themselves feeling agitated or uncomfortable when they are attempting to speak to someone who refuses to look into their eyes. They often attribute this refusal as haughtiness or deceit. Too many times, individuals who are too shy to look into the eyes of their conversational partner, later in life find out that those people thought that they were either disinterested in them or that they thought that they were "too good for" them.

Looking another person directly in the eyes can be a very significant means of influencing that person, whether it be simply influencing the way they perceive you, it can also influence them that your words have more meaning than they would have otherwise thought and can go so far as to motivate action in the person you are speaking with. Eye contact is taught as a very important sales method. If a sales person doesn't look their clientele in the eyes, their income is directly affected.

People feel cared and paid attention to by those who look them directly in the eyes.

There is always something of a balance to be aware of when considering this act. Staring a person directly in the eyes and never looking aware can be considered aggressive and intimidating, while the opposite is considered rude and unfeeling, and just downright strange. It is important to attempt to make regular eye contact and also read the other person's body language so that you can leverage how much eye contact to make for each moment.

Staring directly into someone's eyes at the appropriate moment, may show them that you are especially impressed by what they are saying just then.

Communication is a multi-faceted animal and eye contact is a very important part of that beast. Be sure to look into these windows whenever you can as you may find that you will learn so much more in life by way of eye contact.