There is something that makes you know when you have that direct eye contact with a person, even though they might stand meters away from you and you are surrounded by other people too.
What makes you know when you have that eye contact? Because even if there is someone that is standing almost right behind me I know when someone that is standing let’s say 6 meters away is looking at the other person or when they are looking at me.
In: Biology
It’s a natural behavior. Before we developed such complicated mating ritual (such as buying coffee, offering flowers, going to a restaurant etc) and before we could talk, prolonged eye contact was a sign of interest. As such, prolonged eye contact is ingrained in our instinct as something important.
Second thing to understand, our eyes see everything in front of them. Not just the bit we’re looking at. It’s just that our brain chose to ignore things beside the center because it can’t keep up with giving high definition to everything we see. Nonetheless, it still check everything for any sign that are important to it (movement for predators, shiny stuff, etc) which include eye contact. When the brain discern that eye contact, it attract or attention to it.
Eye contact was very important for our ancestors, to find potential mates or threats. Because of this our brains developed a “super power” when it comes to eye contact, reading the miniscule changes in the eyes that indicate we’ve made contact. Note that this system is hyper sensitive so it can trigger a lot of false positives (thinking there’s eye contact when there’s not).
I am naturally shy and do not make prolonged eye contact. I grew a beard during lockdown. A magnificent mane if I do say so myself. My wife hated it and asked everyone for their opinion (” Tell him it looks awful”) Most folk think i suited it. Anyway one day one of her friends turns up for a socially distanced walk. I think her friend is quite attractive but I’ve never really flirted or anything because … what’s the point? I go to meet her while my wife is getting ready. I look her in the eyes thinking “Go on – comment on the beard, everyone else does”. I don’t break eye contact. Suddenly everything goes out of focus except her eyes. I can tell from them that she’s smiling. It seems to last for minutes but in reality probably only a few seconds. My wife approaches and breaks the spell. Her friend looks down at the ground, still smiling, and stretches her arms overhead.
That is my eye contact story.
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
I’m not sure i understand the question? You know because you’re looking at their eyes and can see they’re looking at you?
Your brain is an insanely complex network of cells called neurons that can receive information, process it in various ways, and then pass on their work to other neurons.
What we call consciousness is the result of the neurons working together to transform the various physical senses into a rational understanding of the world.
There are specific neural network subgroups in your brain that are dedicated to detecting certain kinds of visual patterns, such as motion or alignment, or detecting shapes or faces.
We know these neuron clusters exist because it is possible to overstimulate and “exhaust” them, which can cause a false sense of motion in the opposite direction.
This is what is “setting off” the eye contact feeling, a cluster of neurons in your brain that have the job of detecting such patterns and sending out a priority alert to the consciousness when these patterns are found.
It is similar to having a bunch of concentric rings all shifting around randomly, but then suddenly coming into alignment for a moment, which makes them jump to the top of your attention priority.
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