The importance of Eye Contact

Nothing beats true eye contact.

As you probably know from your own experience – and scientific research has amply proven – eye contact is an indispensable element of true, natural and effective interaction with other people. It allows us humans to express and exchange a wide range of possible emotions, from sadness to rage, from confidence to doubt, from happiness to disappointment, and anything in between. Looking someone in the eye makes us feel we’re communicating with another human being instead of just talking to a  moving picture. Apart from these emotional components of human interaction, eye contact also ‘regulates’ the conversational behaviour like turn-taking, emphasizing, inviting reactions and the like. As a result conversations tend to converge rather than diverge – the latter often being the case when communicating through media without eye contact, like e-mail and telephone. Briefly put, eye contact is what makes contact between individuals feel natural. Without it, true virtual presence cannot be achieved.