Body language is not limited to keeping a confident posture or leaning forward when in a business meeting. The fact is that people can deduce another person’s state just by observing the other person’s eyes. There are a number of things that you should know when it comes to eye body language.
Pupils: This is one of those body parts that people do not have control over like when it is automatically adjusting itself to be able to absorb the right amount of light. In the year 1975, Eckhard Hess discovered that pupils dilate when a person is talking or interacting with someone who he or she is interested to or when looking at an object that a person is interested at. You can try experimenting on this by talking with a friend about something he or she is interested at and gradually shift the topic of the conversation to something that he or she does not find interesting. Observe how their pupils dilate and contract depending on the subject of your conversation.
Eye Contact: This gesture is vital when it comes to interacting with people and knowing how to properly make eye contact can be an advantage especially if you want to establish rapport in business. Some of the things that you have to keep in mind are:
- Persistent Eye Contact: Doing this can have the opposite effect since constant eye contact can make the other person feel uncomfortable. In fact, the same rule applies when interacting with animals. Some animals tend to feel threatened when people stare at them too much. In addition, too much eye contact can be translated as a person being too aware of the signals he or she is trying to send to the other person who instills distrust in the other person.
- Avoiding Eye Contact: Avoiding eye contact is often interpreted to be a sign of deception or shame but the fact is that people who maintain eye contact and are asked questions tend to fall short when it comes to giving correct answers as compared to those people who are asked the same question and who look away. Maintaining eye contact can take too much energy from people which can be used to do other tasks.
Blinking: Different people blink their eyes at a different rate but in addition to this, a person’s blink rate is influenced by his or her emotions toward people he or she interacts with. Blinking more than the average 6-10 times per minute can be considered a good indicator or sign that a person is interested with the person he or she is speaking or interacting with.