Body Language For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 5

The Eyes Have It

In This Chapter

Understanding the power of the held gaze

Avoiding eye contact

Reading the messages – how eyes tell a tale

Because much of your face-to-face interaction with people involves looking at their faces, knowing what their expressions are expressing gives you insight into what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling. When in doubt, look to the eyes. The signals they send play a vital part in revealing emotions, thoughts and intentions. In fact, of all your body’s parts, the eyes reveal your inner state most accurately. From their position in front of the brain’s limbic system, they’ve got a direct line to your body’s command centre. Your pupils – the dark disks in the centre of your eye – can’t lie. When pleased with what they see, they enlarge. When they shrink in size, you’re not happy. Eyes respond involuntarily to stimuli with little means of control. Of course, if you want to increase the diameter of your pupils to make yourself look more appealing, you can indulge in a bit of marijuana. Or perhaps not.

Light affects the size of the pupil. The ...