Eye contact

A language studied beyond words

The gaze has become an important subject in social psychology with the study of nonverbal communication. Researchers sought to understand how the eyes participate in attention, relationships and the organization of exchanges. The book Gaze and Mutual Gaze by Michael Argyle and Mark Cook, published in 1976, constitutes a landmark in this literature devoted to visual behavior between people.

From photographed faces to real conversations

The experiments on faces made it possible to modify the direction of the eyes while maintaining the same expression, in order to observe how the gaze changes in judgments. Other research has tracked eye movements during conversations.

Screens change the situation

Research is also interested in what distinguishes an image, a video and an interaction with a person actually present. In a reciprocal exchange, everyone can see that they are being looked at and respond to this attention.