Body Language: Why Do People Avoid Eye Contact?
I am the kind of a person who like to have direct eye contact with someone whom I talk to. For me, eye contact helps me build a connection with this person. It can also show warmth, interest, appreciation and even love (or the other way around, to show negative emotions, such as sadness, hate and anger).
When I speak to someone and he/she doesn’t want to have an eye contact with me, it bothers me so much. So, to answer my curiousity on this matter, I turn to my smartest bestfriend on earth Google to find out about this. Here are some of the findings:
1. People in certain cultures do avoid eye contact. It is just the way they show respect, humility and meekness toward other people. For example, children are taught not to look at their parents eyes, subordinates are expected to avoid eye contact with their superiors, and women are not allowed to look at men’s eyes.
2. People do avoid eye contact to show that they are just not interested in the topic of the conversation, they are not comfortable with the other person or simply they just don’t like the person (Ouch, that hurt). But...
3. Sometimes shy people avoid eye contact because they like the person but they're too shy to make eye contact, too nervous to look at the person, or too confused about what to do next after they make eye contact (whoaa, it is a bit tricky then).
4. Some people tend to avoid eye contact because they have low self-esteem. These people feel insecure because of their ‘conditions’, such as lower economic background, lower level of education, or lower level of attractiveness.
So, that’s why people avoid eye contact, huh. There are cultural, social, and personal reasons behind it. It turns out that body language is indeed a complex thing.
I feel like a scientist now. I have a laboratory, I collect data, I gather the findings, and I draw conclusions. Well, not the kind of a ‘scientific' scientist, because it is just trivial matter with unaccredited procedures. But, I gain a new knowledge today.
Eureka!
