Personality shapes the way our brains react to eye contact

[INTP]

Eye contact plays a crucial role when people initiate interaction with other people. If people look each other in the eye, they automatically send a signal that their attention is focused on the other person. If the other person happens to look back, the two will be in eye contact, and a channel for interaction is opened. Eye contact is thus a powerful social signal, which is known to increase our physiological arousal.

Previous research has suggested that eye contact triggers patterns of brain activity associated with approach motivation, whereas seeing another person with his or her gaze averted triggers brain activity associated with avoidance motivation. This indicates that another person's attention is something important and desirable. However, many people find it discomforting and may even experience high levels of anxiety when they are the focus of someone's gaze.

Researchers at the University of Tartu in Estonia and the University of Tampere in Finland set out to study what lies underneath these individual psychological differences. Does personality modulate how a person reacts to eye contact? Can this difference be measured by brain activity?

"In order to test this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment where the participants' electrical brain activity was recorded while they were looking at another person who was either making eye contact or had her gaze averted to the side. We had assessed the participants' personality with a personality test in advance," Researcher Helen Uusberg explains.

The results showed that personality does indeed modulate the way one's brain reacts to attention from another individual. The eye contact triggered approach-associated brain activity patterns in those participants who scored low on Neuroticism, the personality dimension related to anxiety and self-consciousness. However, if the participant scored high on this personality dimension, the eye contact triggered more avoidance-associated brain activity patterns. The high-scoring participants also wanted to look at the other person with a direct gaze for shorter periods of time and experienced more pleasant feelings when they faced a person with an averted gaze.

"Our findings indicate that people do not only feel different when they are the centre of attention but that their brain reactions also differ. For some, eye contact tunes the brain into a mode that increases the likelihood of initiating an interaction with other people. For others, the effect of eye contact may decrease this likelihood," Professor Jari Hietanen explains.

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[á´…eparted]

Interesting. I'm neurotic, but I'm not heavily neurotic. I do not like eye contact with 95% of the people I come into contact with. It makes me uncomfortable in a way I can not explain. Though I blame this more on Asperger's than anything else.

 

[hjgbujhghg]

I hate eye contact with people I don't know well, I can't stand looking into stranger's eyes... I am good with females though, not with males.

 

[LovelySweet]

It's not natural for me to want to hold eye contact with those I don't know too well. I'm always relieved if someone (especially me) iis wearing sunglasses.

But I've taught myself it's okay to look someone in the eye while talking...most extroverts love it for some reason (they respond to me well).

I've made it a game to look close enough and long enough to see their eye color. Eye color differences are actually really cool!

 

[GarrotTheThief]

i don't always like eye contact for too long. I have a weird face and my facial expressions aren't always true to my feelings and I know that if the person is always looking at me they may get hte wrong impression but when I don't give eye contact I feel like a douchebag...although I will admit, I never stop to say bye or hello. I am always moving and say it in passing which besides having a stiff neck, I hear, is a trait of ENTJ's.

 

[Hitoshi-San]

I make eye contact a little too often, which I'm sure makes some people uncomfortable. Out of all the people I've known, the ones that are near me whenever they're drunk/high make me want to shrink to the size of an ant when I look into their eyes.

If I have a crush on someone or find them otherwise sexually attractive I really fucking CAN'T bring myself to make eye contact with them for too long.

But I totally agree with [MENTION=25045]LovelySweet[/MENTION], seeing what someone's eyes look like is awesome. And if someone doesn't make eye contact with me while we're talking I'll feel like I put them off somehow or they don't feel comfortable around me or have something to hide.

 

[Frosty]

Eye contact has always been a big problem for me, never was able to remember to hold it for long, always seemed...distracting. My social skills IRL really are not that bad, depending~except for the issue with eye contact (and being touched-but that generally presents less problems as it is necessary less often). Maybe it is because it felt too personal, to distracting, too invasive, too predatorial or domineering, I am not really sure-could just just be from growing up in a house of combative introverts. But it is significant enough that I have noticed it, and have received comments specifically about it from many people, with its inclusion on one of my most extensive performance reviews.

Another odd thing is that it is generally a near complete lack of eye contact, or intensive staring. Neither is something I usually realize until it is pointed out to me.

 

[fetus]

I really, really struggle with eye contact, to the point where several people have commented on it. For some reason, my mind blanks when I'm looking in someone's eyes. It's unnerving. When talking, I sort of look off and zone out on something. It helps me think better.
I need to work on it.

 

[Luke O]

If someone is staring at me, I want to know why. I'm generally OK with it though, but if there are multiple people staring at me, I do get suspicious. Tbh I'm more uncomfortable if people are watching what I'm doing rather than watching me, in my mind I know I'm being assessed.

On the flip side, my short attention span means I can never hold eye contact with anyone for very long anyway.

Even pictures of eyes have an effect on people. I wonder if this is one reason wht eyes are such an important component of symbols everywhere.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Eye contact is something I unconsciously seem to avoid. I need to force myself to do it with people. I usually look up or to the side when talking to people. I can actually focus much better on their words if I'm not looking directly in their eyes. I have strategies for alternating between eye contact and looking away in such a way to not appear disinterested or zoned out.

 

[Forever]

I'm comfortable with eye contact, I look at everyone's face and more often than not I get smiling faces from either men or women or even kids will smile and say hello. That's of course when I take hold of my emotions and my emotions aren't controlling me.

When that happens, seems like it's a reversal effect, but I love looking at faces so even not smiling back is not the worst thing that could happen. Interesting article!