About 3 seconds at a time. In a study with a face on a screen, the length of eye contact that viewers found most comfortable averaged 3.3 seconds (Binetti et al. 2016).
Where to look when you break it
To the side, not down. A gaze that returns to the viewer raised likeability (Mason, Tatkow & Macrae 2005); a lowered head with lowered eyes reads as submissive and sad (Mignault & Chaudhuri 2003).
What eye contact does
- It strengthens what your face shows: facing the viewer made a smiling face read as more trustworthy (Sutherland, Young & Rhodes 2017).
- More eye contact read as more credible, attractive and composed (Burgoon et al. 1985).
- It decides how a head tilt reads. Chin down with the eyes on the viewer reads as dominant; with the eyes down, as submissive (Toscano, Schubert & Giessner 2018).
- It completes the confident look: with the eyes looking up instead of at the viewer, far fewer people recognised pride (Tracy & Robins 2007).
Holding it longer
Past about 3 seconds, eye contact stops being comfortable. Two looks use that on purpose: mysterious holds past it and breaks only to the side; intimidating does not break at all.
It differs by culture
Japanese raters judged a held, direct gaze in person as angrier and less approachable than Finnish raters did (Akechi et al. 2013), and Japanese adults in conversation look at the eye region and between the eyes (Haensel et al. 2020). For Japan and South Korea, How I Land sets eye contact at about 2 seconds at a time, aimed softly between the eyes. More: by region.
On a video call
Eye contact is with the lens, not with the face on your screen.
In the app
How I Land does not track where you look. Each look says what to do with your eyes; the rest of the face is measured.
Free. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent.