Next time you’re with a loved one, consider trying an awkward experiment: Take a moment of silence and gaze into each other’s eyes. By the time you reach about four seconds, things will probably feel uncomfortable, according to some social research. Yet the precise reason why is tricky to pin down with a scientific lens.
“There’s something in that looking that has meaning, sustainable meaning,” says Joy Hirsch, a neuroscientist at Yale School of Medicine and founder of the school’s Brain Function Laboratory. “The mechanism for connection has never really been understood.”
In fact, many questions remain unanswered about how eye contact might influence social interactions. Hirsch and other neuroscientists have only recently begun to acquire meaningful data mapping the interplay between two brains and the eyes. Such work has promising potential in the realms of autism — which can impact eye contact and other social behaviors — as well as somatic therapy and other behavioral psychology research.
