Avoid Eye Contact With Person Who Disagrees With You

A new study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that making eye contact with a person whom you are trying to convince but already disagrees with your viewpoint may prove to be counterproductive.

The findings were part of the study which involved researchers from Canada, Germany and the United States who made use of the new generation of eye-tracking technology to determine how making eye contact affects situations involving persuasion.

The researchers found that the more people watched a person's eyes while he was speaking, the less persuaded they were by the argument.

"There is a lot of cultural lore about the power of eye contact as an influence tool. But our findings show that direct eye contact makes skeptical listeners less likely to change their minds, not more, as previously believed", lead author of the study, Professor Frances Chen from University of British Columbia said.

Source: Medindia