Body Language of Gaze Omission
Cue: Gaze Omission
Synonym(s): Ignoring.
Description: Defined as a failure to look at someone without intending to (rather than avoidance).
In One Sentence: Gaze omission is the failure to look at someone due to preoccupation.
How To Use it: Gaze omission is a signal that happens without awareness so does not have any meaning. However, if one wishes to avoid the possible negative fall-out from lack of acknowledging someone, one should be sure to be conscious enough to excuse their inattentiveness. In other words, one should be aware of ones social position and whether another person is expecting you to acknowledge them or not. Often, lower ranking people feel particularly offended when higher ranking people do not notice them. This if often taken as a personal insult despite the intention. Omitting gaze is one such way that may potentially damage a leader’s efficacy. Therefore, authority figures should be sure to always acknowledge the presence of others, no matter how pressing the situation.
Context: General.
Verbal Translation: “I’m so busy and distracted that I don’t see you and so I don’t mean anything by not acknowledging your presence.”
Variant: See Gaze Avoidance.
Cue In Action: Bill had a big presentation and really needed to get the chairs in place before everyone arrived. When Mary tried to get his attention to discuss her role in the company, he seemed to brush right past her. She felt that he snubbed her and was feeling angry, but later in the evening he asked her a few questions in passing that lead her to rethink her negative evaluation of him.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Eye gaze includes “mutual gaze” when two people look each other’s faces or eye-to-eye, “gaze avoidance” in which a person purposely prevents eye contact and what we discuss here “gaze omission” where people don’t look at or notice other people, but not due to any reason specifically.
While mutual gaze and gaze avoidance have meaning, gaze omission has no meaning.
It is typical for people who are busy or distracted to easily go without seeing people around them. This is especially so with men who have been shown to have more tunnel vision and when focused, will exclude all other information around them. Women can see around their periphery better than men and can also handle more information at the same time, so it’s not as usual for women to omit their gaze. It is up to the body language reader to collect enough cues to decide if gaze is omitted or gaze is being avoided which is a big distinction.
Cue Cluster: Someone that omits their gaze will be distracted, harried, will be shuttling around with their bodies, or eyes, will be grimacing or seem worried, tensed, with tight lips. Other times the mind will seem adrift, the eyes glazed over, the face may be blank as if contemplating something internally.
Body Language Category: Confused body language, Disengagement, Eye Language.
Resources:
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