Making eye contact has always been a way to help your listener hear and understand your point, but new research suggests it actually may hurt more than help, according to a press release.

The researchers found that eye contact is actually more likely to cause a listener to resist being persuaded and will make matters worse when he or she already disagrees. The findings are published in Association for Psychological Science journal Psychological Sciences.

"There is a lot of cultural lore about the power of eye contact as an influence tool," said lead researcher Frances Chen, now an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, but conducted the studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. "But our findings show that direct eye contact makes skeptical listeners less likely to change their minds, not more, as previously believed."

Chen and her colleagues used brand new eye-tracking technology to investigate the eye's actions when it engages in direct contact. The researchers found that participants' attitudes on various hot-button issues shifted less the more they focused on a speaker's eyes in a video.

The only instances in which the participant became more receptive while focusing on the speaker's eyes was when they already agreed with the point the speaker was making.

Co-lead author Julia Minson, of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said the findings show eye contact is only ineffective in adversarial situations. In a friendly one-on-one, eye contact established honesty and trust, but in an argument, it can come off as intimidating and commanding.

"Whether you're a politician or a parent, it might be helpful to keep in mind that trying to maintain eye contact may backfire if you're trying to convince someone who has a different set of beliefs than you," said Minson.

The researchers said further research will be needed to see if eye contact is related to brain activity, release of certain stress hormones and heart rate increase in persuasion situations.

Said Chen, "Eye contact is so primal that we think it probably goes along with a whole suite of subconscious physiological changes."