A second experimental study confirmed these findings. Participants who were told to look at the speaker's eyes displayed less of a shift in attitudes than did those participants who were told to look at the speaker's mouth.

The results showed that participants who looked at the speaker's eyes were less receptive to the arguments and less open to interaction with the advocates of the opposing views, and were thus more difficult to persuade.

According to Julia Minson of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, co-lead researcher of the study, the findings highlight the fact that eye contact can signal very different kinds of messages depending on the situation.

While eye contact may be a sign of connection or trust in friendly situations, it's more likely to be associated with dominance or intimidation in adversarial situations.

"Whether you're a politician or a parent, it might be helpful to keep in mind that trying to maintain eye contact may backfire if you're trying to convince someone who has a different set of beliefs than you," said Minson.

The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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