Dartmouth grad decodes eye contact's impact during face-to-face conversations

In an eye-opening revelation, a new study by Dartmouth College has revealed that eye contact in a conversation is made during moments of "shared interest" and pupils of people engaged in the conversation dilate in synchrony as a result. Published in the National academy of Sciences, the findings also suggested that making and breaking eye contact during a conversation adds its quality and engages the listener.

The ANI reported the research's lead author and Dartmouth's graduate student in psychological and brain sciences, Sophie Wohltjen as saying that eye contact is immersive and powerful. She stated that synchrony is at its peak when eye contact is made and eventually decreases even if the contact persists, resulting in a break of contact.

She further explained that the 'make and break' eye contact method is better, as one with too much synchrony might make the conversation stale. Besides, an engaging conversation requires being on the same page and eye contact seems to be one way we create a shared space while also allowing space for new ideas, she added.

Moreover, another author and professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth, Thalia Wheatley, said that these findings have opened a new horizon to the assumptions that eye contact creates synchrony. She stated that eye contact happens when we are already in synchrony. In fact, eye contact seems to help break that synchrony in order to allow for a new thought or idea.

The experts reached this conclusion following an experiment to examine the relationship between eye contact and pupillary synchrony in a natural conversation. Pairs of Dartmouth students were brought into the lab and were made to wear eye-tracking glasses and were asked to have a conversation for 10 minutes, which was recorded.

Following the conversation, the participants were taken to different rooms and were asked to watch the conversation they just had and rate how engaged they were. The results showed that people make eye contact as pupillary synchrony is at its peak. This graph then goes down immediately, only to recover again once the eye contact is broken. The results also showed consistency with other work, illustrating how breaking the synchrony can allow for creativity and individual exploration.

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