Gaze at How Eye Contact Shows Charisma

Charismatic speeches by workplace leaders –compared to standard speeches or performance-contingent financial rewards – increased workers’ output by 17%. Researchers from University of Liechtenstein, University of Innsbruck, and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano report this compelling finding from a prior study in order to highlight the importance of charisma as a persuasion tool.
     The researchers also point out a gap in that and many similar prior studies: The studies fail to tell leaders what specific behaviors produce charisma impressions. Aiming to remedy this problem, their own studies find that one behavior is gazing at the eyes of the audience members. Leaders exhibiting more pronounced eye-directed gaze were rated as more charismatic in ways which inspired audiences to exceed workplace performance expectations.
     The surprise in the studies was not that charisma was associated with persuasiveness. Three of the survey items that raters used to measure charisma were “Has the ability to influence people,” “Has a presence in a room,” and “Knows how to lead a group.” What is more surprising is that a technique seemingly as simple as an eye gaze is closely associated with those three characteristics, which themselves have shown a statistical and conceptual association with each other.
     When you gaze at someone, you capture their attention and you verify their importance to you. You’ve considered them worth focusing on. Moreover, eye contact facilitates a synchronization of brain waves between two people, which is associated with synchronization in their opinions.
     These were correlational studies, so we can’t confidently conclude that all you need to do to impress as charismatic is to simply start gazing at the eyes of your audience members. The more defensible conclusion is that eye-gazing is part of a set of behaviors which hold promise for signaling to audiences your leadership skills and thereby for improving your persuasiveness. The nature of those behaviors is suggested by the wording of the other three survey items used in the rating of charisma: “Can get along with anyone,” “Makes people feel comfortable,” and “Smiles at people often.”
     The researchers argue that the significance of eye gaze arises from it not being simple to do correctly. Maintaining the gaze requires attention. Yet for the gaze to achieve desired results, the leader must also maintain attention to the message intended for delivery. The researchers also caution that their studies haven’t identified how to avoid irritating others with contrived or confrontational eye contact.

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Image at top of post based on photo by Kelly Sikkema from Unsplash