Friendship hinges on individual personality

decides whether one would strike a chord with a stranger, says an interesting study.

Those who score low on neuroticism — the personality dimension related to anxiety and selfconsciousness — are more likely to open the channel of interaction in response to eye contact, the findings showed.

On the other hand, those who are more anxious and self-conscious may find eye contacts discomforting and may even experience high levels of anxiety when they are the focus of someone’s gaze.

“Our findings indicate that people do not only feel different when they are the centre of attention but that their brain reactions also differ,” said corresponding author Jari Hietanen from the University of Tampere in Finland.

For some, eye contact tunes the brain into a mode that increases the likelihood of initiating an interaction with other people.

“For others, the effect of eye contact may decrease this likelihood,” Hietanen added.

Eye contact plays a crucial role when people initiate interaction with other people.

If people look each other in the eye, they automatically send a signal that their attention is focused on the other person.

However, in some individuals, eye contact may also trigger brain activity associated with avoidance motivation.

In this study, the researchers set out to study what lies underneath these individual psychological differences.