Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/wiley/eye-contact-distance-and-affiliation-a-re-evaluation-OW0zRUDlXG
References (0)
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Copyright
- 1970 The British Psychological Society
- ISSN
- 0007-1269
- eISSN
- 2044-8295
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1970.tb01257.x
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Argyle & Dean (1965) presented and tested the affiliative–conflict theory of eye‐contact and the Intimacy model which stems from it. Their finding that, as the distance between subjects in a dyadic discussion increased, recorded eye‐contact increased, was held to support the theory and model, and has assumed a central place in Argyle's work on social skill. The present experiment tests the hypothesis that, with increasing distance, gaze directed at the ear and shoulder is increasingly recorded as eye‐contact by observers in the Argyle & Dean situation. The hypothesis is strongly confirmed: recorded eye‐contact increases with distance but as a function of observer performance, not subject performance. It is suggested that Argyle & Dean's results may have been an artifact of observer performance, not subject performance. Implications both for the methodology of work on eye‐contact and for the models of Intimacy and social skill are discussed.
Journal
British Journal of Psychology – Wiley
Published: Aug 1, 1970