Experience on the runway and scientific research lead to the same conclusion on how to appear very confident in yourself.
Self-confidence has to do with eye contact.
Dana Carney, a psychologist at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, has spent most of her professional life studying nonverbal communication, including how those in the business world can project power and self-confidence.
Carney was asked how perceptions of power and status are influenced by nonverbal communication. She began to offer advice.
Her first advice: focus on eye contact.
There are several ways people display and convey power and confidence, Carney explains, but not all can be naturally controlled.
One thing that almost everyone can use to their advantage is how long they maintain eye contact with others.
In this way, you show others that you believe in yourself enough to see and be seen. And furthermore, Carney adds, eye contact conveys confidence but is not perceived as dominant or arrogant.
“Not only does it convey power, but it also conveys intelligence and warmth. So, you can’t go wrong with eye contact,” she concludes.
Models and scientific studies agree with Carney’s advice.
Business Insider interviewed Olga Kuznetsova, a confidence trainer with a large number of followers on social media and a thriving business based in New York, who also happens to be a former professional model.
Among other tips, based on outward appearance—such as walking confidently in high heels—Kuznetsova also gives a body language tip that is almost identical to Carney’s.
“If the moment we enter a place, we start looking around from one person to another, that instantly shows that we are not confident,” she says.
If you want to be confident, it is important not to shift your gaze too much, but to maintain eye contact.
This simple but effective advice is supported both in theory and in practice.
It also means that the next time you enter a presentation or a promising meeting and want to feel confident, perhaps you should pay a little more attention to maintaining eye contact.
Source Shqip.al