TYT: "No eye contact is callous and psychotic"

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Recently, TYT uploaded a news story, covering another news story that fox news did about homeless people living at a train station. Their comments about a lack of eye contact were troubling to say the least.

"Right, and then also, um, his body language, as he was asking the questions, REALLY bothered me. Because it shows you, exactly what he thinks of them. He thinks of them as throwaways, he thinks of them as inconveniences, he thinks of them as, garbage."

TYT newscaster, Ana Kasparian, then continues,
"I mean, he's not making any eye contact with them, as he's asking the questions, he's going like this, right. And it just shows you the level of disrespect and disdain he has, and then, of course, you have the one woman who admitted to having a drug problem and I know exactly what went through his mind, and exactly what went through the minds of fox news viewers."

TYT newscaster, John Iadarola, also gives his thoughts on eye contact.
"And I'm glad that you brought up the body language, because it made me think of an example. First of all, he refused to look them in the eye, for more than a split second, like "Oh, yeah, how do you get your money." He can't even look at them, and as he's standing, like in his suit, his body turned away. Anybody who's watched American psycho, the scene where Patrick Bateman goes in they alley, and is asking like "Oh, how did you get in this situation" with a homeless man before, and knifed him, and that is EXACTLY the body language there, of Jesse Watters."



What do you all think about a lack of eye contact being seen as callous or psychotic?
Personally, I think a lack of eye contact is normal human behaviour that shouldn't be viewed like this.

Who knows for sure. I think I've not given sufficient eye contact all the time and have only recently discovered Aspergers. Bottom line is, if you give more than you're comfortable with it will surely impact content, tone and body language. Furthermore, I think this needs balanced with challenging yourself to do what others need you to in order to make them comfortable. Quite the balancing act. To add to the confusion it's said to be fact that others think way less about what you're doing than you imagine, way, way less. For me, I have very few Friends who I discussed this with years ago. As for everyone else, I don't imagine they care for the little we converse. Sounds to me like someone has reacted poorly to a vulnerable person and they've been pulled up on it. To say the behaviour is callous and psychotic sounds ridiculous and sensationalist to me when snobbery surely covers it?

this is a western idea, and a strange one as well.

in all other primates, direct eye-contact is a sign of agression, and in asia, it also signifies dominance and disdain.

The western (european/american) ideas on eye-contact are completely unnatural and even illogical.

Jesse Watters does not appear to have Asperger's though. His eye contact and body language appears to be 'normal' (in terms of what's normal in North American NT communication) when he's talking to people he respects. He makes eye contact with the people who are inconvenienced by the homeless people and also when he's talking to Bill. But when he talks to the homeless people, his body language clearly changes in a way that illustrates the disrespect (in a North American NT society) that we already know he has for them.

I completely understand why AS people would benefit from people not making such assumptions about body language. My husband has struggled with people thinking he's angry, unfriendly, etc. when he's not. And eye contact/ body language norms also vary by culture. But I don't see the offense in this particular video considering who they are talking about and in what context.

You don't think psycho or callous is a bit much?

Can you honestly say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was callousness or psychopathy.

Well, considering they didn't actually say that, nope I'm not saying I agree with that at all.

The psycho comment was that there was a part that reminded them of a scene in the film American Psycho. That is not the same as saying "no eye contact is psychotic". I have not seen that movie so I can't say if it was similar or not, but either way, they did not say he was psycho for not making eye contact. I also did not hear them say the word "callous" ever in the entire video. Can you direct me to the time in the video when they said that? I didn't hear it (yes I listened to it).

Now do I agree with the entire video? No. I think this type of video is largely counter-productive because you can't sway people's opinions by insulting them. I think Jess Watters is a poor journalist and I do not agree with his views at all- yes I do think he is racist. But I don't think saying he's a deplorable human being will help anyone (she said "Jesse Watters is just a deplorable human being… I have no respect for him whatsoever"). He's not going to change his mind because people are saying he's a deplorable human being, so it's totally counter-productive.

I think homelessness is a social problem, but I also think racism is a social problem. I don't think it's entirely Jesse's fault that he is racist- it's due to his upbringing and the society he grew up in. So I think we SHOULD have compassion for guys like Jesse.

Her comment about liberals genuinely wanting to help each other and conservatives saying "f**k everyone" is also not correct. This issue is nowhere near as black-and-white as she makes it out to be. There are horrible liberals and nice conservatives.

So all in all, yes I do think it's a bit much.

No, he didn't say that exact phrase. He did say that not making eye contact is just like Patrick Bateman's behaviour in the movie American Psycho.

Callous is a paraphrase of "He thinks of them as throwaways, he thinks of them as inconveniences, he thinks of them as, garbage." Not making eye contact was (in her mind) thinking that they're throwaway, inconveniences, and garbage, which is quite callous.

This video and it's comments show that using body language to determine what people think or feel is fallible. That people merely come to whatever false conclusions they want.

Edit: Also, while homelessness is an important issue. I couldn't care less about liberal and conservative cat fights.

Here's some more comments that people made about the video, and a lack of eye contact:

PurpleStorm8
"Regardless of what he's intention was, the notion that when someone avoids eye-contact to who their speaking too doesn't automatically mean they do it because they are malicious.

Some people don't have manners or lack of understanding them."

Lisa J (in reply to another post)
"You may not be a racist but I would take a look inside myself if I were you and try to find out where your lack of self worth comes from. Not being able to look someone in the eye says a lot about your mental state (or lack thereof)"

PebbleBoi
"I can't trust a man who can't look at me straight in the eye, I find an uneasy feeling about them."

Moby Toon
"Actually it's proven that finding it difficult to make eye contact when speaking to a person is one of the first signs of being a psychopath."

AJ Ryan
"as someone who is studying psychology I can tell you that no eye contact, body turned away from the person you are talking too is a sign of distrust and often dishonesty. Also if you look at the way he is holding the mike at them it seems ,and this might have just been the angle of the camera, but it seems that he is standing as far away as possible almost to try and disassociate himself with them. And yes body language can sometimes tell you more than actually talking to the person."

Lightning Overload (this commented received the most likes)
"If you talk to a guy who cheated on your wife, you probably aren't looking him in the eye and probably answer in as few words as possible. Just like in the video. Body Language actually does tell you a lot, especially when you have a track record behind you already."