Eye contact: Do you avoid it or just not think of it?

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What works for me is to focus just to one side or the other of their face at eye level. It takes practice but it works for me as a technique to fake it. I can only do it for short times and I prefer not to because it's something I have to remember to do. I never knew anything about it being a big deal until I was told by a psychology professor in college that I didn't make eye contact and it might be causing me trouble in interviews. He taught me the technique and I've been using it when I have to ever since (some 25 years).

~Kate

delete...accidental dupe...*who knows why*

~Kate

This thread backs up what I've been finding in my research.
The upper half of the face--forehead, eyelids, and iris--contains roughly twice the affect information than the lower half of the face--cheeks, lips, tongue.
I'm also finding that people with ASD tend to focus more of their time analyzing the lower half of the face, while NTs tends to focus on the upper half.
I'm trying to figure out why this is true. My current hypothesis is that the lower half is chosen by ASDs because it contains less information, and can they be analyzed more efficiently (since we have less processing power in the limbic system).
If anyone has/is willing to verify this, please let me know.

I have a tendency to focus on chests or necks if I think I can get away with being that blatant about avoiding eye contact. If not, I focus on chins, philtrums (philtra? meh, whatever), or - if I absolutely must - the space between the eyes, above the bridge of the nose. It's both bothersome/unsettling and also distracting to look at eyes. And anyway, where do you look? There are two eyes. Do you focus on one, or kind of hop between the two? Isn't that even more distracting? I reckon so, anyway, so I just don't.

I try to make eye contact but I always get the "you are not doing it, look at me" from family.

When it comes to others I don't think about it.
This has always been an issue for me. Especially when it comes to photos.
I think i am looking at the camera but when the shot comes out my eyes are looking somewhere else.

I try to make eye contact, but I always manage to look down, or away after three minutes.

Hmmm... I do the mouth thing too (with people and movies and such), though my hearing suffers no problems. Maybe it does help process data though.. interesting thought...

As for mr. researcher.. I don't really think I try to process data on the person's emotional or whatever state from the face no matter what part I look at.. never occurred to me. It's the words that are doing the most talking... isn't it?

I didn't know I was supposed to until I was dxed, I don't really think about it now. I think things like being able to communicate verbally correctly are more important than eye contact, but this might be an artifact of never understanding the importance of eye contact.

In the last few years, I have taught myself to look at people's eyes when they are talking to me (I used to just look at their mouths). It's more like staring then anything, though, and I'm very conscious about doing it. But I still can't make any eye contact with people when I'm the one talking.

I still think about whether or not I make natural eye contact. I really don't know! I find if I am talking to someone I look away to formulate my ideas then look back at the person after. If the other person is talking to me I just stare in the general direction of their eyes until they look away.

I wear glasses but for most of my growing-up years I didn't wear them. So my vision was never clear. Maybe, because of that reason, I never had a problem with looking in peoples' eyes? The issue confuses me.