Can’t make eye contact with figures of authority?

3 comments

1. Making prolonged eye contact imply violent or bad behaviour. Hence we avoid unnecessary eye contact

2. Try the Dwight Schrute technique. Look them between their eyes just above the ridge of the eyebrow.

   Also, momentary eye contact is good. Prolonged eye contact scares people and makes them uncomfortable.

   Maybe you are not a confrontational person. Maybe you were raised to respect authority too much. No one likes eye contact in this day and age so you’re fine.

3. Growing up, I had trouble with eye contact because of an eye disorder. Eventually, I learned how to control it and made it less noticeable.

   Since then, I can hold eye contact way past the point of making the other person uncomfortable. This is an invaluable tool with people of “authority”, as they expect others to back down. I’ve found this catches them off guard. Once I realised I could do this, my self confidence shot up.

   One trick is to do it outside with sunglasses on. Since they can’t see your eyes, they don’t know what you’re looking at.

   Try it with low level authority figures. Once you start, you won’t stop. Then the key is learning when and where to look away.