How much eye contact, is too much eye contact?

Question

Before reading, please answer this in a helpful manor.

I am a communications student in my last year of college. Last semester I studied facial expression and body language in business settings. After learning about these different traits in class, I became intrigued with the psychology behind facial expression and body language. I found myself searching for all related information and after studying the field I came upon a weird problem/realization….

I no longer think and interact in the same way during normal interactions and conversations.
- I feel myself acting like a psychologist instead of relaxing and reacting. I definitely experience information overload and it is driving me crazy.
- I find myself over-analyzing normal facial expression during conversations, and I central process my interactions instead peripheral processing like most people.

So with all that in mind I need some help in the form of more information. Please answer if you can help!

Answer 1

I went to nursing school, and in mental health clinicals they made us study body language. We had to write down in our reports what body language the patient had and what body language we had when we interviewed them. I hated it, it was just ridiculous.

I also worked in a mental hospital and I knew for a fact that nobody really does that. I have no idea why they made us learn all that nonsense.

I know that staring at people can make them nervous, and sometimes people think you're weird if you don't give enough eye contact when you talk to them. I never really figured it out, but I probably give less eye contact than most people. If somebody doesn't like me for that, I don't care.

Answer 2

I feel anything over 10 seconds is staring, Then I like to walk right up to the person and say hello. Talk about a person never looking at you again! :)