Some people will look you straight in the eye when they talk. Others avoid you and will not look at your eyes. This eye contact is important.

As a teacher it's important to look at each of your students in order to gain their attention, at least in most societies. In other cases the eye contact may demonstrate either avoidance or attraction. This is important when a stranger meets you so that you will know his attitude towards you, whether he is willing to look you in the eye or avoids you or is afraid to look you in the eye.

It's also important when dating so that you can tell the way that your date feels about you. This can be an important factor in determining and judging relationships.

This is also good if a person had looked in your eyes previously and now no longer does so that you can question whether the person is embarrassed or ashamed about something that was done as compared to the previous situation. Or whether the person is warming up or turning sour or cold on the relationship.

However, this entire procedure is based upon cultural norms as well. In some cultures people do not look each other in the eye. In other cultures they do. And before making real decision about the meaning of the eye contact it is important to clarify where the person is coming from and whether it is related to a cultural factor.

Furthermore, the fact that it is a cultural factor may help you determine that when a person moves from one culture to another the eye contact differs. You can tell in some cases how well that person has become acculturated in the new location. This is also affected by cases in which the person travels perhaps to the old culture frequently or not. It also depends upon how long the person has been in the new location, at what age did they move to the new location with the differing culture, and whether the person associates with people from the older culture or the newer culture.

Thus, this concept of eye contact if you take into account all of the factors related to the eye contact, there is a great deal that you can learn about the person which you would not know otherwise. It is a fine tool but it must be used carefully because so many other issues are involved in it.

Furthermore, since there is such a great possibility of error in the issues relating to eye contact, it is imperative to take this factor into consideration together with other relevant factors. If this factor does not seem to fit in with the other issues, then drop it and assume that it purely culturally related and that it is of much less significance.