My friend said something interesting yesterday.

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He said that if you look into a womans eyes and you look away first that it's a sign of weakness. Now my friend can be pretty dumb at times and he thinks he knows more about women than he does but is there some truth to this? To me it makes sense and I'm definitely going to apply it but what I don't understand is, where did he get this knowledge from? No matter what site on the internet I've been to that was about dating ever mentioned anything about this, I have never seen anyone recommend this to someone else. It makes total sense so why hasn't anyone said this before? What do you guys think about it?

Weakness? I'd of thought it was respectful not to stare at someone so directly

I guess it is a non-verbal gesture of submission. Whereas to continue to stare is an act of aggression/dominance?

he is right, looking away almost instantaneous after making eye contact is interpreted as lack of confidence/shy etc.
its interesting to experiment with it, like you almost behave like you are in slowmotion mode and take some extra time for everything you do (like eye contact).

It depends. Different cultures have different perspectives.

Not so much staring, but gaining and maintaining eye contact while people are talking to you, that's quite a European (and maybe North American?) thing.

But some cultures (e.g. African/Caribbean and some Asian cultures) consider that looking other people in the eyes is interpreted as aggressive.

I'd say it's more to do with shyness than weakness. Shyness is a natural reaction to someone you like, so there's something in that, but the weakness thing is BS IMHO.

Actually, it's in a lot of material about dating. Quickly breaking eye contact is seen as submissive in the animal world. It's not very relevant advice though.

I think it has a second meaning with humans that's not so positive. Catching someone's glance and holding it can often be interpreted and an invitation to approach. Looking away quickly in that case means they don't want to talk to you.

Sometimes submission is the right course of action. Don't start staring everyone out, that's almost as bad an no eye contact at all. Eye contact is usually conducted in rhythmical patterns, not sustained bursts. Timing is meaningful though.

I guess I would stand back and look at his track record before I gave any weight to his advice. Does he seem to have relationships pretty well figured out?

Well, think of it this way. If a person looks at you, and breaks contact right away, what would you think? If you are a guy, and a girl looks away first, it probably means to approach her. If a guy looks away first, it means she is supposed to approach him. Men are *supposed* to approach women. Humans are animals too, and the same thing is true in the jungle.

Now, this is kind of oversimplified, what your friend said, but he is right.

I've never once in my life thought about a man being submissive to me because he looked away when I looked at him. I'd just see it as him looking away, that's it. Maybe if I thought he was interested in me and I looked up to see him looking at me and he quickly looked away I might find it amusing, like "haha, caught you". If a man is submissive or dominant in nature, there will be way more clues than whether he looks at me or not.

Women are people, with minds - we won't go into a dangerous rage if you look us in the eye or wave red fabric in front of us.

it seems like i'm either staring too long or alternately not even looking in a person's direction. i don't like to be the first to break eye contact on those occasions when i am looking someone in the eye. i think i am a bit wary at times.

One of the best pieces of advice my mum gave me was to look someone in the eye when you've finished talking, because it signals to the other person that it's their turn to speak. If having done this you look away immediately, that's okay. It's your turn to listen.

Staring Contests = childish

if I see a girl who I am interested in I will look away... but I will look back on several occasions to see if she is looking at me. From what Iv seen girls do a similar thing and this back and forth of little glances can be somewhat exciting. I think it depends on the person as to whether they will find someone looking away from them as a sign of weakness.

That's the general idea, but a girl at my college kept looking at me in lessons even though she didn't seem too interested in actually talking to me at all, so you never really know...

I think it depends on the kind of vibe you give off already. A confident, extroverted "cool" guy maintaining eye contact would probably work in his favour, but a shy, autistic guy doing it would usually come across as creepy imo.

I mean I tried to imagine a cool guy doing this, and then I imagined myself doing it. I reckon if I did it, they would just think I was a weirdo