Law Prof Sees Power of Eye Contact in Classroom Observations
Indiana University law professor William Henderson says he first learned about the importance of eye contact in a teaching evaluation several years ago. The student said Henderson had a problem with eye contact, and Henderson realized the criticism was correct.
Henderson says the issue arose more recently when students evaluated their peers’ presentations in his legal professions class. “Students who maintained audience eye contact seemed more confident, competent and memorable,” he writes at The Legal Whiteboard.
Henderson notes that eye contact is also a part of career advice offered at the Big Think by Michael Ellsberg, author of a book called The Power of Eye Contact: Your Secret for Success in Business, Love and Life. (Ellsburg has also written a book on millionaires.) Ellsburg sees an “eye contact revolution.”
In job interviews, Ellsburg advocates using a “soft gaze.” In a video at Big Think, he explains: “You don’t have those superman laser things coming out of your eyes where you are really, really intensely focused. It’s just like a soft focus.” Follow the interview’s lead, he says. If he or she makes eye contact, you make eye contact. If he or she looks away, you look away. “It’s a dance of eye contact,” he says.
