the problem for me is that when I make
good eye contact and I’m really locked
in on the other person’s eyes I get this
weird sense of vertigo and it’s hard for
me to break my gaze it makes me very
uncomfortable
so my question is how can I improve my
eye contact without feeling awkward we
decided to do an experiment in my house
this is a machine that tracks everything
that I look at see look now I’m about to
meet somebody for the first time will I
be able to make eye contact or will I
fail Matt please come into my workshop
Hey hi David nice to meet you nice to
meet you the person I was trying to look
at here is Matt Peterson a neuroscience
PhD who specializes in facial
recognition and eye movements things I
am not good at now we’re gonna review
the footage of my eye movements when
Matt and I first met let’s go ahead and
look at this and see here I come up oh
yeah see so you kind of went to my
shoulders and then up right around my
mouth well I mean wait why did I look at
that it’s almost like you avoided almost
my face all together oh there you are
do you know why I’m looking at you now
right now we’re having a conversation
yeah boom eyes mouth I’m all over you
you’re making the classic would have
spelled the T pattern a lot people when
they’re engaging with somebody’s they go
from eye to eye and then sometimes
they’ll go down to the mouth on average
usually where people look is where most
people don’t expect actually so most
people think that they look directly at
the eyes or the mouth for instance are
you telling me that’s not where they’re
supposed to look that’s what I’m telling
you thank you Jesus
I don’t need to make eye contact I’m
liberated I don’t have to be polite
where do they look the first place they
look is towards the middle of the face
and actually a little bit down below the
eyes about halfway between the eyes and
the nose tip seems kind of a weird place
because there’s nothing really there I
mean on me of course I have a computer
right there right on you you know I I
don’t have there I know why because
people hate making eye contact
that’s one hypothesis I think my issue
with eye contact sometimes was I was
like make a good eye contact use both
your eyes to look at both of their eyes
and I would have that feeling like oh my
god I’m falling into his dreamy blue
eyes why do I get freaked out when I
look into somebody’s eyes and I feel
like I can’t break away for that I mean
I would basically have to go into
collisions right this is a safe space
for speculation it might be that for
instance your amygdala might be slightly
overactive amygdala is a small cluster
of neurons deep in your brain that’s
basically like the emotional center of
your brain and here’s what’s interesting
direct eye contact stimulates the
amygdala this is one of the reasons why
I contact can be so emotionally heavy
whether it’s feelings of intimacy or
feelings of like threat
I find the act of meeting someone itself
kind of over stimulating essentially the
brain structures which are usually
responsible for drawing people’s
attention to the eyes are now causing
some form of anxiety and yeah yeah which
are now driving your eye moments
downward okay so all the haters out
there it’s not that I’m a jerk I just
may have a hyperactive amygdala how can
I get better at that cuz I want to be
like this great to meet you I’m David
Rees and when we print out the data I’m
like you can’t say I wasn’t I nailed my
eye contact I nailed my heart rate I
nailed my amygdala I don’t know if you
have a dog or I’ve had dogs uh no I do
not cohabitate with animals well if you
did what you would notice is that to
make great eye contact really they look
at you look up at the face and they can
recognize faces very well human face I’m
going to practice eye contact with a dog
there it is
so I borrowed my friend’s dog to
practice some eye contact trying to do a
segment on a high contact look in my
eyes that’s a burn and I think this dog
has a hyperactive amygdala
good eye contact and I’m really locked
in on the other person’s eyes I get this
weird sense of vertigo and it’s hard for
me to break my gaze it makes me very
uncomfortable
so my question is how can I improve my
eye contact without feeling awkward we
decided to do an experiment in my house
this is a machine that tracks everything
that I look at see look now I’m about to
meet somebody for the first time will I
be able to make eye contact or will I
fail Matt please come into my workshop
Hey hi David nice to meet you nice to
meet you the person I was trying to look
at here is Matt Peterson a neuroscience
PhD who specializes in facial
recognition and eye movements things I
am not good at now we’re gonna review
the footage of my eye movements when
Matt and I first met let’s go ahead and
look at this and see here I come up oh
yeah see so you kind of went to my
shoulders and then up right around my
mouth well I mean wait why did I look at
that it’s almost like you avoided almost
my face all together oh there you are
do you know why I’m looking at you now
right now we’re having a conversation
yeah boom eyes mouth I’m all over you
you’re making the classic would have
spelled the T pattern a lot people when
they’re engaging with somebody’s they go
from eye to eye and then sometimes
they’ll go down to the mouth on average
usually where people look is where most
people don’t expect actually so most
people think that they look directly at
the eyes or the mouth for instance are
you telling me that’s not where they’re
supposed to look that’s what I’m telling
you thank you Jesus
I don’t need to make eye contact I’m
liberated I don’t have to be polite
where do they look the first place they
look is towards the middle of the face
and actually a little bit down below the
eyes about halfway between the eyes and
the nose tip seems kind of a weird place
because there’s nothing really there I
mean on me of course I have a computer
right there right on you you know I I
don’t have there I know why because
people hate making eye contact
that’s one hypothesis I think my issue
with eye contact sometimes was I was
like make a good eye contact use both
your eyes to look at both of their eyes
and I would have that feeling like oh my
god I’m falling into his dreamy blue
eyes why do I get freaked out when I
look into somebody’s eyes and I feel
like I can’t break away for that I mean
I would basically have to go into
collisions right this is a safe space
for speculation it might be that for
instance your amygdala might be slightly
overactive amygdala is a small cluster
of neurons deep in your brain that’s
basically like the emotional center of
your brain and here’s what’s interesting
direct eye contact stimulates the
amygdala this is one of the reasons why
I contact can be so emotionally heavy
whether it’s feelings of intimacy or
feelings of like threat
I find the act of meeting someone itself
kind of over stimulating essentially the
brain structures which are usually
responsible for drawing people’s
attention to the eyes are now causing
some form of anxiety and yeah yeah which
are now driving your eye moments
downward okay so all the haters out
there it’s not that I’m a jerk I just
may have a hyperactive amygdala how can
I get better at that cuz I want to be
like this great to meet you I’m David
Rees and when we print out the data I’m
like you can’t say I wasn’t I nailed my
eye contact I nailed my heart rate I
nailed my amygdala I don’t know if you
have a dog or I’ve had dogs uh no I do
not cohabitate with animals well if you
did what you would notice is that to
make great eye contact really they look
at you look up at the face and they can
recognize faces very well human face I’m
going to practice eye contact with a dog
there it is
so I borrowed my friend’s dog to
practice some eye contact trying to do a
segment on a high contact look in my
eyes that’s a burn and I think this dog
has a hyperactive amygdala
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