Stare at Women

Recently researcher Jeremy Bailenson conducted a virtual reality experiment to judge what impact facial contact had on influence.  After conducting experiments to modify and simulate attention, he found the stare down to have the most effect on women.

After the presentation, all the participants rated the presenter on a scale indicating whether or not they agreed with the presentation. While men weren’t persuaded significantly more in any of the conditions, there was a large increase in persuasion for women when the avatar of the presenter looked at them for the entire course of the experiment, despite the fact that this meant the presenter’s gaze behavior was often socially inappropriate.

Hmmm… sounds like a strong logical case to go stare at women.  Cognitive Daily has the full experiment complete with the virtual reality imagery.