What It Means: The ocular orbital muscles are right around your eyes
When people are suspicious, don’t believe in something said, or think something is untrue, their eyes may squint, with the ocular orbital muscles tightening.
Or, it can be that someone is simply processing information or trying to make sense of something 3 . Squinting can be super brief and last for about ? second. So if you meet someone, and they immediately squint their eyes, they might harbor negative feelings toward you. Or if someone reads a business contract and squints, it could mean that they dislike or struggle somehow with the wording of the contract.
Squinting is also the best cue to look for to prevent a fight because squinting slightly with lowered eyelids is a sign of subdued anger (i.e., anger before the eruption!). When suspicion or dislike is addressed early, you can calm the other person down.
De-escalation: If you say something and see the other person narrow their eyes at you, go right into clarification and explanation mode. Figure out exactly what they are hung up on and how to address it.
Averting gaze
Do you notice someone breaking eye contact more and more? Breaking eye contact more often and longer can mean that someone desires to leave the conversation 4 .
Be aware of some gestures that signal a weakness. For example, these clusters can be deadly in a street encounter:
- averting the gaze
- hunching of the shoulders
- pulling arms close to the body
- pressing knees together
- dropping chin to the throat
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It’s generally not a good idea to look down when giving a speech, either. Witnesses who testified while looking slightly downward rather than directly at the questioner were judged less credible, and the defendant whom they were trying to protect was more likely to be judged guilty 4 .
Science also shows that dominant people have more freedom in eye gaze and can look wherever they want. Subordinates, on the other hand, are more restricted where they can look and when. We’ve taken this cue from history-a king can look wherever he wants, but his subjects have to face him, even as they leave the room.
That’s why if you walk into a business meeting, it’s often that bosses and managers will be looking freely around the room, while entry-level employees have more rigid eye movements.
Did you know there is a proper eye etiquette during job interviews? Many employers dislike when applicants move their eyes all over the room “as though they own the place” 3 . Doing so always leaves a bad impression because it gives the feeling of superiority and disinterest.
Fun Fact: In one study of a nudist colony, the film shows where non-nudist men and women were looking 2 . Non-nudist men had trouble resisting the urge to look down, and it was obvious. However, women did not experience problems, and they were rarely filmed intentionally gazing down at private parts.
Shifting eyes
What It Means: If you see darting eyes, this indicates the processing of negative information, doubt, anxiety, or fear 1 . We may dart our eyes around to analyze a situation or consider options. Think of it as “visualizing” our options in front of us.
We may even do this if we’re trapped, say on a bad date that never ends. Our brain will begin to search for escape routes the same way that monkeys and apes do 2 .
But did you know our eyes shift naturally? Eye contact is actually a series of eye movements called saccades. Saccades are tiny micromovements of the eyes that happen hundreds of thousands of times throughout the day.