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10.13007/248

Ideas for Leaders #248

In the Eye of the Beholder – When Eye

Contact Fails to Persuade

Key Concept

Maintaining eye contact has long been considered an effective way of

engaging a listener and thereby enhancing the persuasive power of the

speaker's arguments. But leaders should be aware of new research showing

that eye contact may actually make people less susceptible to persuasion,

especially when they already disagree.

Idea Summary

There is a lot of cultural lore about the power of eye contact as an influencing

tool. Business leaders, salespeople and many others have long been urged

and trained to engage in eye contact with their audience – whether that is an

individual customer or a convention of thousands. It has been taken as read

that, by doing so, the listener(s) will pay greater attention to the speaker, will

trust them more and be more likely to be persuaded by them.

The findings of this new research turn this belief on its head, showing that

direct eye contact makes sceptical listeners less likely to change their minds,

not more, as previously believed.

Lead researcher, Frances Chen, conducted studies while at the University of

Freiburg, Germany, and is now an assistant professor at the University of

British Columbia. Her findings are reported in an article co-authored with,

among others, Julia Minson, assistant professor at Harvard Kennedy School.

To investigate the effects of eye contact in situations involving persuasion,

Chen, Minson and colleagues utilized recently developed eye-tracking

technology. They found that the more time participants spent looking at a

speaker’s eyes while watching a video, the less persuaded they were by the

speaker’s argument – that is, participants’ attitudes on various controversial

issues shifted less as they spent more time focusing on the speaker’s eyes.

Spending more time looking at the speaker’s eyes was only associated with

greater receptiveness to the speaker’s opinion among those participants who

had already agreed with the speaker’s opinion on that issue.

A second experimental study confirmed these findings. Participants who were

told to look at the speaker’s eyes displayed less of a shift in attitudes than did

those participants who were told to look at the speaker’s mouth. The results

showed that participants who looked at the speaker’s eyes were less

receptive to the arguments and less open to interaction with the advocates of

the opposing views, and were thus more difficult to persuade.

According to Minson, the findings highlight the fact that eye contact can signal

very different kinds of messages depending on the situation. While eye

contact may be a sign of connection or trust in friendly situations, it is more

likely to be associated with dominance or intimidation in adversarial situations.

Authors

Chen, Frances S.

Minson, Julia

Schöne, Maren

Heinrichs, Markus

Institutions

University of British Columbia

Harvard Kennedy School

University of Freiburg

Source

Psychological Science

Idea conceived

September 2013

Idea posted

October 2013

DOI number

Subject

Communication

Interpersonal Skills

Psychology

Negotiations

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So, while we might be tempted to make the demand, “Look at me when I’m

talking to you!” of a listener, this demand may have unintended

consequences.

The researchers are planning to look at whether eye contact may be

associated with certain patterns of brain activity, the release of stress

hormones, and increases in heart rate during persuasion attempts. “Eye

contact is so primal that we think it probably goes along with a whole suite of

subconscious physiological changes,” says Chen.

Business Application

For now, leaders in all walks of life would be well advised to reconsider their

approach to making eye contact with their audience, taking more account of

who that audience is, whether it is likely already to be ‘on side’, and how

easily it is likely to be influenced by their arguments. For leaders who find

themselves in an adversarial negotiation, but seeking a resolution, fixing their

gaze on their opponent may in fact be akin to waving a red flag to a bull.

Says Minson, “Whether you’re a politician or a parent, it might be helpful to

keep in mind that trying to maintain eye contact may backfire if you’re trying to

convince someone who has a different set of beliefs than you.”

Further Reading

In the Eye of the Beholder – Eye Contact Increases Resistance to

Persuasion. Frances S. Chen, Julia A. Minson, Maren Schöne & Markus

Heinrichs. Psychological Science (September 2013).

DOI: 10.1177/0956797613491968

Further Relevant Resources

Frances Chen’s profile at University of British Columbia

Frances Chen’s personal website

Julia Minson’s profile at Harvard Kennedy School

Julia Minson’s personal website

Maren Schöne's profile at University of Freiburg

Markus Heinrichs' profile at University of Freiburg

Harvard Business School’s profile at IEDP

© Copyright IEDP Ideas for Leaders 2013

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