Attraction Tips, Smiling and Eye Contact Research
In my body language
programs you learn not just what to do but why certain nonverbal behaviors
work. It's great to say, smile and look someone in the eye to enhance the
attraction process, but to know the research that shows why that is such a
powerful action in the attraction process really informs you and can motivate
you to change and or improve your nonverbal behavior. So when you say,
"You need to smile and make eye contact to win a mate." Here is the
why behind the do.
Here is the link and the research.
Eye contact and a smile will win you a mate
11:22 07 November 2007 by Debora MacKenzie
For similar stories, visit the Love and Sex Topic Guide
It's official: you are more likely to think other people are attractive if they
are looking straight at you and smiling. The finding helps to explain
long-standing questions over the subtle ways in which evolution can determine
human preferences.
An important question in biology is whether a particular function or ability is
the result of evolution or an accidental byproduct of it. Some biologists
believe that human perception falls into this second category because there has
been little evidence that how we perceive things like faces affects our
biological success in ways that are selected for or against.
But the evidence is mounting that evolution has conditioned our perception in
subtle ways.
Claire Conway and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK,
paired nearly identical photos of computer-generated faces, with smiling or
disgusted expressions. The pair differed only in where the irises were pointed:
straight at the viewer, or off to the side (see image top right).
Several hundred Aberdeen undergraduates, in the lab and online, rated the faces
for sexual attractiveness, and for likeability, a sexually neutral quality.
Both men and women found faces looking straight at them to be more attractive
and more likeable, even if the faces looked disgusted though unsurprisingly,
there was a greater preference for smiles.
Sexual bias
But when the viewers were rating the faces for attractiveness, the preference
for being gazed at directly by smiling eyes was much greater for faces of the
opposite sex, especially when they were rated by men. There was no such sexual
bias in the preference for a direct gaze when the students rated
disgusted-looking faces, or when they were rating any faces for likeability.
The Aberdeen team says the sexual bias in subjects' perception of sexual
attractiveness in a direct, smiling gaze is hard to explain as a functionless
byproduct of perception. But it could have evolved to ease the effort of
mating, by directing efforts towards people who are already expressing an
interest.
The idea that evolution played a role in determining our facial preferences is
backed up by other work, such as research showing that perceptions of
attractiveness change depending on peer pressure, or even the time of the
month.
What about cultures, common in Asia, where gazing directly at someone is rude?
"The Asian participants [in the study] demonstrated preferences for direct
over averted gaze," Conway told New Scientist. But these are private
preferences, she cautions. "Whether or not such preferences are also
expressed in public situations we don't know."
Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society (DOI:
10.1098/rspb.2007.1073)
Love - Learn more about the science behind it in our comprehensive special
report.
The Human Brain - With one hundred billion nerve cells, the complexity is
mind-boggling. Learn more in our cutting edge special report.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at
http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at
http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
