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Encyclopedic overview
Two figures making eye contact in Caravaggio's The Fortune Teller c. 1595 Two students locking eyes
Eye contact occurs when two people or non-human animals look at each other's eyes at the same time. In people, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and can have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to mid-1960s, the term came from the West to often define the act as a meaningful and important sign of confidence and respect. The customs, meaning, and significance of eye contact can vary greatly between societies, neurotypes, and religions.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “eye contact” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.