eye contact

a direct look exchanged between two people who are interacting. Maintaining eye contact is considered essential to communication between therapist and client during face-to-face interviews. Social psychological studies of eye contact generally find that people look more at the other person when listening to that person than when they themselves are talking; that people tend to avoid eye contact when they are embarrassed; and that the more intimate the relationship, the greater the eye contact. Also called mutual gaze.

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Psychology term of the day

January 11th 2025

induced color

a color change in a visual field resulting from stimulation of a neighboring area, rather than from stimulation of the part of the field in which the change appears.