New research suggests there's a good scientific reason why some of us struggle to look someone in the eye and hold a conversation with them.
It turns out we're not just awkward, our brains actually can't handle the tasks of thinking of the right words and focussing on a face at the same time.
The effect becomes more noticeable when someone is trying to come up with less familiar words, which is thought to use the same mental resources as sustaining eye contact.
Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan put this to the test by having 26 volunteers play word association games while staring at computer-generated faces.
When making eye contact, the participants found it harder to come up with links between words.
"Although eye contact and verbal processing appear independent, people frequently avert their eyes from interlocutors during conversation," write the researchers .
"This suggests that there is interference between these processes."
The volunteers were tested while looking at both animations of faces making eye contact and animations of faces looking away. They were also asked to think of links between easily associated words and words where there are a lot of competing associations.
For example, thinking of a verb for 'knife' is relatively easy, because you can't do much more than cut or stab with one. Coming up with an associated verb for 'folder' is harder, considering you could open, close, or fill them.
The volunteers took longer to think of words when they were making eye contact, but only when difficult word associations were involved. The researchers suspect the hesitation indicates the brain is handling too much information at once.
So while making eye contact and holding a conversation is certainly possible, this is evidence that they can both draw on the same pool of cognitive resources, and sometimes that pool starts to run a little dry.
The sample size used is a pretty small one, but it's an interesting hypothesis. And it's also not the only study to suggest the brain gets slightly freaked out by eye contact.
Last year, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo demonstrated that staring into someone else's eyes for just 10 minutes induced an altered state of consciousness. Participants saw hallucinations of monsters, their relatives, and even their own faces.
It seems that a process called neural adaptation is the cause, where our brains gradually alter their response to a stimulus that doesn't change – so when you put your hand on a table, you immediately feel it, but that feeling lessens as you keep your hand there.
The volunteers making eye contact and associating words may also be experiencing some kind of neural adaptation, but for now the Kyoto University researchers are calling for further study into the links between verbal and non-verbal communication.
And in the meantime, if someone looks away while they're talking to you, they might not be being rude – they could just have an overloaded cognitive system.
The findings have been published in the journal
Cognition.

Source: Science Alert

I do find it difficult to look people in the eyes but I learnt it and it feels good.

Face no dey fear face .

Rorachy:
I do find it difficult to look people in the eyes but I learnt it and it feels good.

Face no dey fear face .

I have always believe that dominant personalities hold eye contact for longer time when having a discussion.

13ShadesOfMay:
I have always believe that dominant personalities hold eye contact for longer time when having a discussion.

But that's not true.

Interesting.

Rorachy:
But that's not true.

For me, when someone isn't looking back in my eyes when conversing, I felt they don't find the topic interesting or they can't handle what been said to them.

In most African setting, It is an offence for a kid to maintain a constant gaze right into an adult's eye, sometimes that attracts a heavy konk from the elder,lol.

13ShadesOfMay:
For me, when someone isn't looking back in my eyes when conversing, I felt they don't find the topic interesting or they can't handle what been said to them.

For whatever reason. If I make full eye contact with you. Just know u are dead. It can either be physical or spiritually death or both as the case maybe.

mukhcech:


For whatever reason. If I make full eye contact with you. Just know u are dead. It can either be physical or spiritually death or both as the case maybe.

LMAO.... Bro, why evil?

wins18:
In most African setting, It is an offence for a kid to maintain a constant gaze right into an adult's eye, sometimes that attracts a heavy konk from the elder,lol.

In Nigeria, it is considered rude for kids to prolong staring at their parents including elders... Meanwhile, i think most Nigerian parents hold eye contacts when chastising children.

lol
I kinda find it difficult to break eye contacts.
I noticed that, the speaker always seems yo be speaking to me alone or somehow involuntarily seeking approval whenever I'm in a group or an official situation or gathering.
Holding eye contacts has become a habit with me.
I don't know if it's good or bad.

...

It depends. If m meeting a busty lady, I prefer to stare at the boobs

my boss mock me for always avoid eye contact
that shit make me uncomfortable

When I meet someone new I hardly make eye contact cos I'm a bit shy but wen I get comfortable the stares start coming but I have noticed that my eye contact could be intimidating at times even to older persons so I try to limit it except I'm angry or trying to pass a strong message

lol.
i do this often buh ladies keep complaining that i always make them shy whenever i stare directly to their eyes ....

makes little sense to me

I do find this eye contact stuff difficult. I am not weird after all

When I look at girls straight in the eyes... I automatically enter flirt mode... but I avoid it sha... don't want people catching feelings... I only look at specific people in the eyes...

My woman... my family...

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chai, this one na im hard for me to do... So shy and scared......

Raintaker:
lol
I kinda find it difficult to break eye contacts.
I noticed that, the speaker always seems yo be speaking to me alone or somehow involuntarily seeking approval whenever I'm in a group or an official situation or gathering.
Holding eye contacts has become a habit with me.
I don't know if it's good or bad.

Same with me. It makes me feel like I'm d only one d speaker is addressing during a lecture or seminar due to d constant eye contact

Op, look into my eyes as in eyeball to eyeball, do u think I will read all that?

African people will say "am talking and you're looking at me like mumu" Lol

milky3:
Op, look into my eyes as in eyeball to eyeball, do u think I will read all that?

u want me to look at you abii?