veruniel wrote:
I used to get nervous too, when people looked straight at my eyes while talking. I think on some subconscious, instinctive level, I saw it as a threat. I always wished they would make eye contact only briefly, just to show they were paying attention, and then look away instead of fixing me with a steady stare.
It's notable that in the majority of species, staring directly into the eyes of another individual
is a threat. If you look most animals in the eye, they'll look away quite quickly. Irregular eye contact is friendly. It's not saying, 'I don't like you and therefore don't want to look at you', but, 'I like and trust you enough not to
have to watch you all the time.' It's almost solely in humans that eye contact seems to have become reversed. Maybe those of us who are uncomfortable with it are really acting more naturally.
My eye contact is particularly poor, but the amount that I find the friendliest to observe is what you describe: a glance and smile every so often to indicate interest, but not constant.