Body Language of Hand To Eye Gesture or Eye Rubbing Gesture

Cue: Hand To Eye Gesture

Synonym(s): Eye Rubbing, Touching The Eye, Rubbing The Eye, Eye Touching.

Description: Occurs as the hand comes up and rubs the eye with the eyelid closed or rubs the skin around the eye particularly just on the out or inside edge – the corner of the eye or the edge of the nose. Touching the eye may be stifled by coming up short and simply touching the upper cheek. At times, the gesture is done quite delicately as a mild stroke almost as if a person is simply pointing at the edge of their eye.

In One Sentence: Hand to eye gestures signal that a person can’t believe what they are seeing.

How To Use it: As the cue mostly goes unnoticed by others, it’s application is limited. However, rubbing the eyes in an exaggerated way, signals disbelief and can help reinforce your position.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: a) “I’m rubbing my eyes in disbelief because I can’t believe what I’m seeing.” b) “I’m touching my eye briefly because I don’t like what I just heard, saw or learned.” c) “I’m lying and I’m embarrassed by my own action so I’m going to cover up my eyes like I did when I was a kid – though stop short and instead just scratch my upper cheek instead.”

Variant: Instead of eye rubbing, the upper cheek may be scratched, the eyelid might be rubbed or the corner of the eye may be manipulated or itched. Sometimes the knuckle of the index finger is rubbed and twisted in the corner of the eye to relieve discomfort. See eye blocking category.

Cue In Action: a) The kid’s mom couldn’t believe what her 2-year-old had done with the flour. It was head-to-toe and top to bottom, and all over the kitchen in mere minutes. She rubbed her eyes vigorously, as if she could erase from view the miserable sight. b) The guy was obviously lying. Following his statement “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” he scratched just below his eye. The pain of his tall tale caused him to seek relief from the discomfort.

Meaning and/or Motivation: When it is not done to alleviate an itch it is a widespread gesture indicating a negative thought, doubt, or disbelieve at what is being said or seen depending on the context.

If the eyes are touched briefly it can signal that someone has said something that has caused discomfort. When eyes actually need scratching, they will happen at random rather than coupled with critical information.

People can be caught punctuating their own lies by momentarily touching their eye as if they are trying to prevent the discomfort associate with bearing witness to them. When lying is due to negative thoughts it is an abbreviated form of eye blocking. Think back to childhood when you would have covered your eyes if you saw something frightening on television. As we grow older, our cues become more constrained so instead of cupping our hands over both eyes, we just touch the corner of the eye or come up short and scratch the upper cheek instead.

When rubbing the eye has no meaning, it is done to alleviate and itch or to sooth sore eyes that are tired. When men bring their hand to their eyes they might vigorously rub, whereas women will lightly rub around the eye so as not to smear their make-up.

Cue Cluster: When eye rubbing indicates a negative thought, watch for additional nervousness such as palm scratching due to sweating, scratching the neck or pulling the collar away, voice trembling and eye contact that suddenly ceases.

Body Language Category: Adaptors, Amplifier, Auto contact or self touching, Eye blocking, Eye Language, Nervous body language, Stressful body language.

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