Have you ever looked at someone solely based on their gaze and felt that you could read their intentions? If so, you are right. A recent study showed that “People can read intention in each other’s gazes…lending evidence to this well-known assumption about human communication.” (People really can communicate with just their eyes, study finds by Stephanie Pappas (May 5, 2025), Livescience, at p. 1)
The study, conducted by Jelena Ristic, a professor of psychology at McGill University in Canada, and her colleagues, aimed to learn whether people respond differently to intentional eye movements than to unintentional ones. That is, is the “communication” different when a person is told to look left, right, up, or down intentionally versus doing these same movements unintentionally?
To find out, the researchers recruited 80 people to watch recordings. However, the tapes were “… clipped just before the people in the video actually moved their eyes. In each clip, the participants were asked to predict which way each person would glance: left or right.” (Id. at 4.)
The results showed:
“They were faster to make these decisions when the looks were intentional,” Ristic said. This difference in prediction speed was a matter of a few milliseconds, but it revealed that people process intentional and unintentional gazes differently. “ (Id.)
In follow-up studies, the researchers tried to figure out:
…what participants might be seeing that would help them more quickly predict eye motion before a person intentionally shifted their gaze. To the naked eye, Ristic said, it didn’t look like the recorded individuals were moving at all. But in a close analysis, the researchers found that there was more motion around the eye area before someone chose to move their gaze versus when they were told which way to look. These tiny movements might have been a “tell.” (Id. at 4.)
The upshot is that one can discern another’s intent by watching a person’s eyes carefully. The eyes will give it away. They are indeed “…the window to the soul.” (Id. at 1.)
A helpful tip for your next negotiation or dispute resolution.
… Just something to think about.
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