Gaze during speaking as related to shyness.

32 shy and 32 nonshy women were selected from a population of Japanese junior college students on the basis of their responses to the Trait Shyness Scale. This study manipulated shyness (shy and nonshy), interviewers' gaze (high amount of gaze and low amount of gaze), and interviewers' sex in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. Subjects were randomly assigned to eight groups and interviewed by one of two male or two female confederates. Two trained judges recorded duration of gaze and speech through a one-way mirror and watching videotaped records. Analysis showed that for the interviewer in the high gaze condition the self-reported shy women gazed less while speaking than the nonshy women.