Overview
- Participants were slower on a word-finding task when a speaker in a video looked at them directly, according to reporting on work by Shogo Kajimura and Michio Nomura.
- Brief gaze breaks can reduce cognitive strain and increase comfort, whereas persistent, conversation-disconnected avoidance may indicate insecurity.
- Typical conversations involve direct eye contact only about 40 to 60 percent of the time.
- Outlets caution against reading too much into short look-aways, noting that gaze behavior varies by context.
- Police and hiring managers sometimes consider gaze direction in interviews, but it is treated as just one observational cue.