Eye contact matters: exploring its influence on interpersonal comfort and self-disclosure in virtual interactions

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ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increased number of individuals receiving mental health services via telehealth necessitating further examination of potential factors that influence the therapeutic relationship between online clients and providers. In virtual settings, eye contact may be particularly important in the establishment of trust and to subsequent levels of self-disclosure. This study used an experimental manipulation of eye contact (low, medium, or high eye contact by the experimenter which would affect the potential for mutual eye contact) to examine whether differences in eye contact received would affect interpersonal comfort and self-disclosure in a semi-scripted virtual interpersonal interaction. Participants in the high eye contact condition felt significantly more comfortable sharing answers with their interaction partner and felt more comfortable generally with their interaction partner compared to those who received lower levels of eye contact. Level of eye contact received did not significantly affect how much participants self-disclosed to their interaction partner; however, overall levels of comfort did correlate with higher levels of self-disclosure in the transcripts. These findings suggest that eye contact may affect the rapport and trust individuals develop when sharing personal information online and underscores the value of further examining the ways therapists might attend to eye contact to increase the efficacy of teletherapy sessions.