More than meets the eye Humans use eye contact to communicate everything from encouragement, to hostility, to empathy, and the ability to interpret gaze behaviour is an important element of social understanding. We spoke to Dr Anne Böckler-Raettig about her research into how we process information conveyed through eye contact. A period of
eye contact between two people can mean a variety of different things, from interest, to encouragement, to hostility. The variety of meanings that a single gaze can hold seems to be particularly large in humans. “In many species, eye contact is mainly a signal of dominance. With dogs for example, eye contact is a way of expressing dominance or aggression,” says Dr Anne Böckler-Raettig, Professor of Psychology at the University of Wurzburg. In humans however, eye contact can convey a far wider range of emotional and mental states. “As a default, it signals interest. If I want to start a conversation or an interaction with you, I first have to look at you – to show that I am interested and to check whether you are too,” explains Dr BöcklerRaettig. “There are also many complex or subtle things we can communicate with a simple gaze. Like colleagues in a meeting may arch an eyebrow or roll their eyes to exchange views on their boss, while people in a bar use eye contact to silently say ‘save me from this conversation’, or maybe ‘join us’.”
Deciphering eye contact This topic is at the heart of Dr Böckler-Raettig’s research, in which she is investigating how
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humans process eye contact and the different ways in which we use it to communicate with other people. Context is an important consideration in this respect. “It is always the combination of the context, a given situation, and gaze behaviour that creates meaning. There is no single ‘thank you’ gaze, ‘save me’ gaze or ‘be quiet’ gaze - it’s always about the interaction with context,” stresses Dr Böckler-Raettig. In her research, Dr Böckler-
The context is critical here, as gaze behaviour is likely to vary according to the nature of the conversation. A participant in a dialogue may be perceived as lacking empathy if they don’t maintain eye contact when listening to someone talking about their interests for example, but it’s different if the subject matter is more sensitive. “If the other person tells you a sad story, then it is much more acceptable to look
It is always the combination of the context, a given situation, and gaze behaviour that creates meaning. There is no single ‘thank you’ gaze, ‘save me’ gaze or ‘be quiet’ gaze it’s always about the interaction with context. Raettig uses conversations recorded on video between two strangers to investigate how we use gaze behaviour to reach social understanding and to assess character. “We wondered how someone’s gaze behaviour makes them appear to others,” she outlines. “How do people come across who maintain direct gaze all the time, or shift between looking at the other person and looking away, or avert gaze constantly?”
away,” explains Dr Böckler-Raettig. In her research Dr Böckler-Raettig also addresses impairments in social functioning where individuals show altered patterns of gaze processing and gaze behaviour. “We’re investigating two conditions in particular – one is social anxiety, and the other is conduct disorder,” she says. “We’re looking at the degree to which people’s attention is captured by direct gaze, as well as how they
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