Think about it: When was the last time you held unwavering eye contact with someone for an hour? If we’re in a crowded elevator, we look at the floor. If someone close by is staring, we take a step back. We use different personal space techniques to always maintain an appropriate level of intimacy—which fails to translate online when you’re staring “at a huge face inches from your own.”
So says Dr. Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. We recently talked with him about the effects of nonverbal overload: long stretches of close, nonstop gaze. Read on to learn more about this phenomenon and for tips on maintaining trust and connection with team members without defaulting to another staring contest video conference.
What is nonverbal overload?
Bailenson says that, “Nonverbal overload comes from hours and hours of sitting in one of these [virtual] meetings constantly getting both close personal space and direct eye gaze.”
While we might be paying more attention when the camera is on, a study done by Bailenson’s lab showed that students who were stared at by their instructor for an entire virtual class were more productive than students who were not, but reported feeling exhausted and uncomfortable afterward.