Our eyes say a lot. They have rich and varied vocabulary. Our eyes read others’ minds as well as allows others to read our mind. They appraise us the emotional and mental states of others. Our eyes are a great social navigator.

Eye-gaze perception is our guide to social interaction. Looking straight into the eyes indicates that you are a straight person. Prolonged eye contact, on the other hand, can be threatening. Prolonged eye contact is perceived aggressive. Disengaged eye contact is a sign of distraction. It happens when we try to conceal our true feelings. We can notice that we are being noticed. We prefer to look at objects rather than empty space. Eye contact signals attraction between people. Researchers have shown that when a person is seen to move their eyes to engage in eye contact, they are perceived as more likable and attractive than if they are seen to disengage eye contact.

Eye contact influences perception of another’s attractiveness but also that this effect is modulated by the social context of the judgment, that is, the perceived relationship between the observer and the observed party, says Alexandra Frischen. The capacity to use another person’s eye gaze as a cue to attention develops early in life. Children can detect deception. They know from eyes what people want to hide from them.

We possess a great sense of gaze direction. This is due to the small dark region (pupil and iris) and lar­ge regions of white sclera to either side of iris. Our visual system is sensitive to gaze direction of other people. It is also known that another person’s gaze shift produces a shift of an observer’s usual attention in gaze direction.

Gaze cueing is a phenomenon whereby we pay attention to our peers by following their gaze and looking in the same direction as them. The work of scientists of the University of Padova in Italy published in Royal Society’s journal Biology Letters says that we pay more attention to people who have a higher status in life. The studies suggest that students pay more attention to faces when they are told that they are looking at high achievers.

Who among the people assembled at the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) had the maximum gaze cueing potential? The competitors including litterateurs, cheerleaders, entertainers and social activists, distinguished as well as not so distinguished. Their presence certainly increased the gaze cueing potential of the JLF. At the individual level two people’s contribution is noteworthy. They added glamour and visibility to the festival; one a cheerleader and the other a litterateur. One made the mark due to her presence and the other due to his absence. Both improved, not only the gaze cueing potential of the event, but also of their own.

As the researchers say, “We rapidly encode the relative social status of the individuals populating our environment and we shape our social attention processes accordingly.”

(The writer is a biotechnologist and ED, Birla Institute of Scientific Research Jaipur)