Eye Signalsin monkeys and apes), revealing a person's insecurity about
what is happening.
When you're with a particularly boring individual, your
natural urge is to look away for escape routes. But because
most of us are aware that looking away shows a lack of inter-
est in the other person and signals our desire to escape, we look
more at the boring individual and use a Tight-Lipped Smile to
feign interest. This behaviour parallels what liars are doing
when they increase their eye contact to appear convincing.The Geography of the FaceThe geographical area of a person's face and body that you
gaze upon can also dramatically affect the outcome of a face-
to-face encounter.
When you've finished reading this next section, try out the
techniques we discuss as soon as possible — without warning
anyone — and you'll experience the powerful effect these skills
can have. It takes about a week of practice for these eye tech-
niques to become a normal part of your communication skills.
There are three basic types of gazing: Social Gazing, Inti-
mate Gazing and Power Gazing.1.The Social Gaze
Experiments into gazing reveal that during
social encounters the gazer's eyes look in a tri-
angular area on the other person's face
between the eyes and the mouth for about
90% of the gaze time.
This is the area of the face we look at in a
non-threatening environment. The other
Person will perceive you as non-aggressive. Gazing areaThe Social
2.The Intimate Gaze
When people approach each other from a distance, they look
quickly between the other person's face and lower body to first