(Bk Business) Carol Kinsey Goman Ph.D.-The Nonverbal Advantage_ Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work -Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2008)

44 The Nonverbal Advantage
talking. There is often mutual eye
contact during attempted interruptions,
laughing, and when answering
short questions.
In more-intense or more-intimate
conversations, people naturally
look at one another more
often and hold that gaze for longer
periods. A sure sign that a conversation
is lagging is when one of the
participants begins looking away
to pay more attention to other people
or objects in the vicinity. And
She has stopped listening.
when she glances at her watch,
gazes blankly into the distance, or visually scans the room,
she is giving definite signals with her eyes that she has, in
effect, stopped listening.
Eye Contact Avoidance
In most cases too little eye contact is interpreted as being
impolite, insincere, or even dishonest. One hospital, analyzing
letters from patients, reported that 90 percent of the complaints
had to do with doctors’ poor eye contact, which was
perceived as a lack of caring.
Liars tend to avoid eye contact unless they are very brazen
or well rehearsed—in which case liars may actually overcompensate
(to “prove” that they are not lying) by making too
much eye contact and holding it too long. With this exception
the tendency is for people to avoid direct eye contact
when lying and, conversely, look with full focus when telling
the truth or feeling offended by a false accusation. When
people are dishonest or holding back information, they typically
meet our gaze less than one-third of the time.