Thank you all.
The reason I ask now is because someone mentioned eye contact in another thread.
It is something about which I have at times thought, and so, reminded of it now, and being on Gransnet, it seemed an ideal place to ask.
I have never tended to look people in the eye, thinking back I think I would tend to look towards some non-moving view, such as a wall, probably because I was concentrating on the words I was hearing, so no body language cues being received, and even if I had been looking at the person I don't think that I would have picked things up from most body language cues.
Two other factors, I was almost always taller that the other person, and I tend not to smile when talking.
I saw once, basically by chance, an Open University programme about a social interaction experiment. The experimenters employed an actor to be as if he had just arrived in London at Paddington railway station and he asked always using the same words and tone of voice, somebody who happened to be about, the way to Marble Arch.
Sometimes the actor was dressed as a city gent, bowler hat etc, and sometimes as a workman in overalls.
The experiment involved whether the person encountered smiled or not when giving the information.
The subjects were "assessed" (I know, don't send postcards!) as either working class or middle class.
If I remember correctly, which I might not have entirely, it was found that working class subjects provided the information, but never smiled when doing so, middle class subjects always smiled when they thought the asker was middle class, middle class subjects only sometimes smiled when they thought the asker was working class.
The interaction was covertly filmed.
Afterwards the person was approached by experimenters, the experiment explained, and permission to broadcast the recorded film sought. Clearly some had agreed. Whether anybody refused, and if so, whether they were annoyed about it, was not, as best I remember, mentioned.
I think that sometimes I might have been regarded as aloof, arrogant and disinterested, even though none were true, because of these three factors and the expectation of the person with whom I was talking, who was often in a more senior position than me.
So what happens when people from a working class background got on to a "wearing a suit" type job level as a consequence of the 1944 Education Act and the 1963 Robbins Report?
Needing to smile was not taught. Perhaps some picked it up, others never suspected a need?
