Lust or Like Is in the Eyes – How To Read The Body Language Of The Eyes

Lust or Like Is in the Eyes – How To Read The Body Language Of The Eyes
Christopher Philip

According to research by lead author, Stephanie Cacioppo, University of Chicago, you can tell exactly what a person’s intentions are, be it intimate and sexual, or romantic, simply by looking at their eye movements.

It turns out that the eyes are more than ‘windows to the soul.’ Eyes that look toward another’s eyes and make contact are fixated on making an emotional connection, but eyes that shift their gaze to the body are thinking more sexually.

As Cacioppo says “these [eye] patterns of response provide the first clues regarding how automatic attentional processes, such as eye gaze, may differentiate feelings of love from feelings of desire toward strangers.”

In fact, these cues happen rapidly and fairly reliably.

In the first experiment subjects were shown black-and-white images of heterosexual couples interacting with each other. The other set was of people of the opposite sex looking directly into the camera. They then asked the participants to rapidly ascertain their feelings evoked by the picture or the people in them – be it, of sexual desire or romantic love.

Results showed that eye movements of both men and women were specific. When the photograph was associated with love, the participants looked at the face, but when it was sexual in nature, they looked at the bodies.

Cacioppo points out, “by identifying eye patterns that are specific to love-related stimuli, the study may contribute to the development of a biomarker that differentiates feelings of romantic love versus sexual desire.”

While the results are far from scientific certainty, when someone drops their gaze to take in a person’s physique, it does lend support to a person’s motivation. While someone might maintain eye contact in friendship, a person becomes more interested in the rest of the body when their mind wanders to more erotic thoughts. Naturally, the eyes are the first and most unobtrusive encounters people have with another person’s body so it’s not surprising that it’s the eyes that reveal where the mind thinks.

These findings support our long-held ideas that eyes travel in the direction a person wishes to travel!

So next time you catch someone doing the “once-over,” be mindful that they may wish to be more than just friends.

Resources

Bolmont, Mylene; John T. Cacioppo and Stephanie Cacioppo. Love Is in the Gaze: An Eye-Tracking Study of Love and Sexual Desire. Psychological Science July 16, 2019. Published online before print. July 16, 2019, doi: 10.1177/0956797614539706