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It begins with a look - one that goes out of its way to be malevolent. Not accidental, or by chance. By choice.
Maybe you've seen it? The direct, narrow, overlong stare? At first glance it may not look like much. Hostile eyes are so fast and fleeting that it's hard to see how they could have much impact. After all, a dirty look sent doesn't mean it's received, or accepted. Nonetheless, eye violence is a compelling force in the social universe, with the power to influence our physical and emotional well-being. And not just for the person on the receiving end of the look. Perpetrators do no good for themselves either.
Employed to send warnings, set boundaries, punish, and establish dominance, aggressive eye contacts are used around the world to regulate behavior from a distance. Used judiciously, they have their place. But enforcement crosses the line into cruelty when looks are used to antagonize, coerce, or hurt. It's this intention to harm that sets visual violence apart.
When compared with physical aggression, the visual sort may look pretty tame, but being on the receiving end of a nasty look is no joke. Highly sensitive to signals of social threat, staring eyes have a peculiar resonance for humans, and other primates. Experienced as highly unpleasant across cultures, the reaction that is induced by prolonged hostile eye contact taps deeply into pack animal, some might say archetypal, fears. Mean looks are well-known to stimulate feelings of stress and resentment. And often, retaliation - an eye for an eye.
Visual hostility is hardly confined to the schoolyard. Machiavellians, sociopaths and bullies of all ages are known to commit random acts of eye violence, for no other reason except that they can. They flash over-the-top visual aggression at times when to do so is simply gratuitous. A death look at a driver who comes too close, a cut-eye at someone who gets in the way, a hate glare at "one of them."
Even the most seemingly pacific of people, who might otherwise draw the line at overt expressions of physical or verbal violence, will flash eyes of judgment and careless contempt at people around them. Women and men, old and young, of every color, who indulge in casually vicious looks, rationalize, "She deserved it." "He was in my way." "I felt like it."
And why not? If there's no actual contact, no damage done, right? Hate eyes are safe, even socially sanctioned, methods of being malicious. Simple to excuse if they're even noticed at all, and easy to hide, eye aggressions appear harmless.
Research into the consequences of relational violence doesn't support this perspective. Studies, and a great deal of anecdotal evidence, shows that exposure to aggression does have a measurable negative impact on psychological well-being. And it's not just the thin-skinned who are affected. A hostile look from the right person, at the right time, can induce tension and self-doubt in the most resilient of individuals. Both in the moment and afterwards, eye violence can cut to the emotional quick, blocking and paralyzing.
The effects are physical too. Exposure to hostile eyes arouses, sending cortisol and adrenalin levels soaring. Repeated exposure prolongs sympathetic nervous system activation and fight or flight responses. Over time, one's reserves of energy and attention deplete, weakening the body and rendering it more vulnerable to illness.
There are consequences for the perpetrator too. Although impact statements tend to focus on victims of visual violence, research shows that expressions of aggression can be costly to offender. Studies show that "Cynical Hostility" (1) , characterized by enduring negative interpersonal attitudes and behaviors, including antagonistic eye expressions, is a risk factor for adverse health outcomes as diverse as cardiovascular disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While the cause and effect is not yet clear, experts speculate that expressions of hostility stimulate cytokine levels. Central to immune system functioning, cytokine activation negatively impacts on mood, accelerates processes of aging and influences health in a myriad of unseen manners (2). In short: Intentional expressions of animosity, visual or otherwise, are toxic at a cellular level.
One other consequence of visual violence that's often overlooked has to do with energy. Science is unequivocal: there is no such thing as a force that is emitted from the eyes, electrical or otherwise (3). However, while researchers find little empirical data on the pathological power of evil eyes, the negative influence of a hostile look is well respected across cultural groups. Around the globe, malicious visuals are believed to exert considerable influence on the material world -- perhaps because our eyes represent important intersections between intention and action. They sit on the threshold of where thoughts become deeds, and fantasies become realities. According to old wisdom, malevolence materializes in the eyes - it becomes real in the world through the gaze. Focused animosity constitutes a vibration of negative intention that ripples out, contaminating whomever it touches before reverberating back to strike its sender.
Just because it hasn't been proven, does that mean it's not real?
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Intervention, at a really grass-roots level.
We pay a great deal of attention to the aftermath of social violence in our efforts avoid it. But innovation in prevention focuses on bigger picture issues: the subtle seeds of interpersonal aggression. For concerned citizens, it begins with simple observation; watching our own patterns of hostility and retaliation, and monitoring the frequency with which we throw mean looks at strangers, acquaintances, intimates and family.
Because it's not enough to ignore visual violence. It's not enough to stand up to it. We have to stop, too. Especially when it's not convenient. Especially when we don't feel like it. Especially when it's hard to resist the temptation to be mean with our eyes.
For our own good.
And each time we do so, to paraphrase an expert, we become the change we want to see in the world.
Reply below, or email vitamineye@gmail.com
References:
1. http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/full/66/4/572#R1-1046
2. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199907/the-infection-connection
3. Winer, G. A., Cottrell, J. E., Gregg, V., Fournier, J. S., & Bica, L. A. (2002). Fundamentally misunderstanding visual perception: Adults' belief in visual emissions. American Psychologist, 57, 417-424.
