世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare took a look at looking people in the eye when talking and found over one in four don’t usually do so.

Demographics

Between the 29th of January and the 3rd of February 2010 501 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.9% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 32.5% in their thirties, and 32.7% in their forties.

I decided to check how I did tonight as I was meeting a whole bunch of new foreigners at work (the company-sponsored social event really pushed the boat out with a few boxes of Mister Donut and pots of coffee. Let’s talk about doughtnuts for a while in these parentheses – there wasn’t even a single Pon De Ring or any of their new range; since they got a bulk order they must have filled up with the most boring selection possible) Ah yes, back at the party (I want to have another parenthetical digression, but I’ll resist) I did find I looked people in the eyes just about all the time when they were talking, and most of the time when I was, I hope, which was quite a bit more eye contact than I thought I did do.

Research results

Q1: Have ever done a job with direct customer contact? (Sample size=501)

	All	Male N=270	Female N=231
Yes	52.3%	40.7%	65.8%
No	47.7%	59.3%	34.2%

Q2A: Do you look people in the eye when talking to them? (Sample size=501)

	All	Male N=270	Female N=231
Always look them in the eye (to SQ)	16.0%	15.2%	16.9%
Usually look them in the eye (to SQ)	54.9%	52.2%	58.0%
Usually don’t look them in the eye	25.7%	28.5%	22.5%
Never look them in the eye	3.4%	4.1%	2.6%

Q2B: Do you look people in the eye when talking to them? (Sample size=501)

	All	Done customer-facing work N=262	Not done customer-facing work N=239
Always look them in the eye (to SQ)	16.0%	23.3%	7.9%
Usually look them in the eye (to SQ)	54.9%	58.0%	51.5%
Usually don’t look them in the eye	25.7%	17.9%	34.3%
Never look them in the eye	3.4%	0.8%	6.3%

Q2SQ: Do you feel reluctance to look people in the eye when talking? (Sample size=501)

	All	Male N=270	Female N=231
Very reluctant	0.6%	1.1%	0.0%
A little reluctant	41.4%	34.6%	48.6%
Not reluctant at all	58.0%	64.3%	51.4%

Q3: Do you want people to look you in the eye when talking to you? (Sample size=501)

	All	Male N=270	Female N=231
Yes	17.8%	18.5%	16.9%
Perhaps so	54.5%	53.3%	55.8%
Perhaps not	23.4%	23.0%	23.8%
Not at all	4.4%	5.2%	3.5%