The human perspective of staring, whether it is directly or aversely, is a phenomenon that psychologists have been trying to figure out for decades. Do we notice if someone else is staring at us from a far? What emotions run through our minds if we do feel someone else’s presence among us? Does our behavior change if we figure out someone is staring at us from a distance? The reactions and behaviors of the human mind change with each given circumstance, with each different scenario shedding light on our perceptions. In some cases, there won’t be any change in their behavior. In other cases, a person will behave differently than they normal would, possibly moving faster or even adverting their behavior to reflect or even mask their emotions. This means that a person will consciously change their behavior because of the staring. Numerous variables in which a person is staring, i.e. how far away they are, the intensity of their stare, is directly correlated to how a person will behavior to the staring (Argyle and Dean, 1973). This correlation is seen clearly when the person in the study knows they are being stared at, especially when the person/experimenter is staring directly into their eyes. A person in this situation will more than likely engage in behavior that will gauge how someone else perceives them and then this person will adjust to their other according to that analysis.
It is important to note that many other factors tie into this perception as well. The length of how close the contact is, the duration of the contact, and the intensity or emotions of the contact are all variables in which the experimenter can influence in the experiment. In cases of direct and non-direct staring, there is an increase in skin conductivit...
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.... Eye-Contact, Distance and Affiliation. Sociometry, 28.3. 289-304
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“What Meets the Eye”, this topic absolutely caught my full attention in personalized reading list for "Psychology and Human Behavior" members. It was by Daniel Akst and it can be found in our textbook “The Writer’s Presence A Pool of Readings Eighth Edition” page three hundred twenty nine. Its topic has completely reflecting the main idea of this expository writing, my interpretation of it is what caught your attention? We are humans and we are much on the visualization basis. Almost everyone, we have to admit that we judge people at the first sight. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with it, but we also have to accept the fact that it is our prejudice; our perception cannot be always right and accurate. In the essay, author was trying to examine the value of physical attractiveness, its
...at she spoke with many expert starees and discovered that they are much more comfortable with staring exchanges than actual staters are. The reason for that of course, is that they have so much more experience with the staring relationship, so now they themselves actually end up directing the staring relationship in many cases and leading it to a productive end that they want to occur giving the staree power.
While communicating with another human being, one only has to examine the other’s face in order to comprehend what is being said on a much deeper level. It is said that up to 55 percent of a message’s meaning can be derived from facial expression (Subramani, 2010). These facial manipulations allow thoughts to be expressed in ways that are often difficult to articulate verbally, with the face demonstrating “the thoughts of the mind, and the feelings of the heart” (Singla). Many expressions are said to universal, particularly those showing happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and...
Research in this field found preferential differences in an adult when their eye gaze is directed towards an object, as opposed to faces with eye gaze averted from an object, in neonates (Farroni, Csibra, Simion, & Johnson, 2002). Reid and Striano (2005) examined 4-month-old infants looking at adult faces with their eye gaze directed towards an object and averted away from an object. It was found that infants looked substantially shorter at the object that was cued by the eye gaze. They concluded that the cued object was familiar compared with the uncued object which was seen as novel and therefore attracted more attention. Reid, Striano, Kaufman, and Johnson (2004) expanded upon previous research and investigated neural activity using event related potentials to measure an infants’ reaction to direct and averted eye gaze. A positive slow wave measure was adopted and it was found that the amplitude was larger for the averted eye gaze condition compared against the direct eye gaze condition. This increase indicated that the averted eye gaze was seen as novel compared to the direct eye gaze, substantiating what had been found in previous research.
For my breaching experiment, I decided to break the social norm of looking at someone while engaged in conversation with them. Today, it is socially unacceptable and impolite to avoid looking at someone when talking to them. The background assumption for a typical conversation is that direct eye contact will be made more often than not; otherwise social norms are being violated. Avoiding eye contact during an exchange tends to dehumanize the person that is not receiving the eye contact. It is impolite and offensive, not looking at someone who is talking makes it seem as though the topic being discussed is unimportant. For my research experiment I would constantly talk to someone without initiating eye contact, or with my back facing toward the subject, not turning around or making eye contact until I had to ring up their order or make the drink for them. This research is important because it uncovers what happens when the social norm of
Gamer, M., Schmitz, A. K., Tittgemeyer, M., & Schilbach, L. (2013). The human amygdala drives reflexive orienting towards facial features. Current Biology, 23(20), R917-R918. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.09.008
The validity was not enough for the whole research. For the questionnaire part, it is valid at that time. Questionnaire items represented the personal visions of two panels of students and faculty about the ideas of love and like. Those questions were chosen under a serious consideration and related to the concept of love and liking. However, some questions are not suitable to use nowadays and this will be discussed below. For the experiment, it was not valid. The author used the eye contact to assess the couples’ visual behavior but it was not a good measurement. Some mature couple would develop into deeper relationship and have closer contact such as hug. Eye contact may not be a way or necessary for them to communicate but this didn’t mean that they were not close.
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Humans have been studying eye movements for many years now. The first recorded person to publish studies that contributed to the field of eye tracking was Louis Émile Javal [1, 2] in 1878, roughly a century before computers started becoming commonly used. Javal observed human eye movement while reading and was the first to observe that eyes make a combination of rapid movements (which he called saccades) and short stops (which he called fixations). Javal conducted this experiment without the assistance of any instruments, using only his naked eye.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279-301.
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During conversations, I have to put extra effort to maintain eye contact. One of the most important aspect of nonverbal communication is eye contact. The use of eye contact can be one of the most crucial and influential feature of our face. In America eye contact is essential “eye contact serves as a signal of readiness to interact and the absence of such contact, whether intended or accidental, tends to reduce the likelihood of such interactions”(Ruben & Stewart, 2015, 34). Eye contact shows that the person is interested in communicating with you, and has respect and appreciation for you. It gives the conversation a sense of flow. However the lack of eye contact can often seem disrespectful across culture. It is due to cultural comparison present regarding nonverbal communication. Every culture has its own altered
An example of this might be going to dinner or the movies with a prospective mate, rather than the casual encounters that someone might have with them in everyday interactions. Intimacy does not only pertain to specific acts, but also to verbal and non-verbal expressions of love. Although verbal expressions of intimate feelings through self-disclosure are important to relationship quality, the nonverbal expression appears to be more important. In general, people rely more on nonverbal than verbal cues to interpret messages. Some examples of these nonverbal cues include touch, gaze, gestures, and time spent together.
R. J. Dolan, Emotion, Cognition, and Behavior, Science 8 November 2002: 298 (5596), 1191-1194. [DOI:10.1126/science.1076358]