London - Speakers who try to use direct eye contact to change people's minds are likely to have exactly the opposite effect, according to new findings.
Parents who demand their children look at them when told off and politicians staring directly at cameras during speeches are among those who commonly use the tactic.
But researchers discovered that far from reinforcing an argument, eye contact motivates listeners to resist persuasion.
The authors said it remains an 'evolutionarily primitive phenomenon' that is used to 'assert dominance and intimidate others'.
'Contrary to cultural belief and suggestions of some prior research, the present work demonstrates that eye contact decreases the success of attempts at persuasion,' the authors wrote in the online edition of the journal Psychological Science.
'We suggest that the common efforts to look into the eyes of a persuasion target and demand that this person return gaze may be counterproductive to changing hearts and minds.'
The study, led by researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of British Columbia in Canada, involved two experiments.
In the first, 20 students were asked about their opinions on topics such as quotas for hiring women, assisted suicide and nuclear energy before watching videos of speeches on the topics while monitored by eye-tracking devices.
After the videos, participants stated on seven-point scales how receptive they were to the speaker's view and whether they would be willing to receive more information about it or discuss it further.
People who spent more time looking at the speaker's eyes were less likely than others to change their opinion in favour of the argument made in the speech, the team found.
This effect was most apparent when the speaker in the video had gazed directly at viewers through the camera.
Furthermore, those who agreed with a speaker's view beforehand also spent longer looking at his eyes - suggesting eye contact is often wrongly be viewed as persuasive when it actually indicates prior agreement.
In the second experiment, 42 students each viewed four videos arguing in favour of an opinion that the viewer disagreed with.
Half the participants were asked to focus their gaze on the speaker's eyes and half on the speaker's mouth.
People who looked at the eyes shifted their attitudes less in the direction argued for by the speaker than people who focused on the mouth.
Not only were those who focused on the speaker's eyes less persuaded by what they heard, they were also less open to discussing the issue further with people of the opposing view.
The researchers said eye contact has been considered a powerful tool of influence 'from the mythology of Medusa's stony stare to 20th century theories of hypnosis' but said their findings show that context is crucial.
While in some situations eye contact is linked to openness and trust, in others involving disagreement or attempts at persuasion it may simply make listeners 'less receptive to both the message and the messenger'.
They said future studies could assess any changes in brain activity and testosterone levels during eye contact with a speaker trying to make a persuasive argument. - Daily Mail