Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Eye Contact, or Not
When I was in business school, eons ago, we had mock interview sessions with employment counselors in our school’s placement office. The purpose of these sessions, which were videotaped so we could carefully review each second of our performance, was to teach us how to impress corporate recruiters who ventured onto campus and secure prestigious, high-paying jobs. One of the things that the people conducting these practice interviews focused on was how much eye contact we made with them. More was rated better, and seats were arranged to make eye contact difficult to avoid. We sat nose-to-nose with the person conducting the pretend interview. Research indicates that the people leading these mock interview sessions were overzealous about eye contact. Arranging the seats in the interview room so it was difficult to politely avoid certainly wasn’t a good idea. Across cultures, having the opportunity to make eye contact with another person, …
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