Eye contact
Eye contact and facial expressions provide important social and emotional information. People, perhaps without consciously doing so, probe each other's eyes and faces for positive or negative mood signs. In some contexts, the meeting of eyes arouses strong emotions.
In some parts of the world, particularly in Asia, eye contact can provoke misunderstandings between people of different nationalities. Keeping direct eye contact with a work supervisor or elderly people leads them to assume one is being aggressive and rude — the opposite reaction of most Western societies.
Eye contact is also an important element in flirting, where it may serve to establish and gauge the other's interest in some situations.
Mutual eye contact that signals attraction initially begins as a brief glance and progresses into a repeated volleying of eye contact, according to Beverly Palmer, Ph.D. and professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
In the process of civil inattention strangers in close proximity, such as a crowd, avoid eye contact in order to help maintain their privacy.
In humans, eye contact can show personal involvement and create intimate bonds. Mutual gaze narrows the physical gap between humans.
