Looking Away in the Interview

Your first task is to record behaviour before you assign meaning. The limbic system reacts to comfort and discomfort before the thinking brain chooses words: freeze, then flight, then fight. You ask whether the person is more comfortable or less comfortable than a moment ago, establish their baseline when nothing is at stake, and look for a cluster that appears after a specific topic and returns when that topic returns. A single movement is noise; the useful record captures baseline, change, timing, and surrounding behaviour. [navarro what every body is saying, p.25-26] [navarro what every body is saying, p.17-18]

In a graduate interview, you ask about a placement year and the candidate begins answering. Their eyes leave your face and move down toward the table for two seconds before they continue. In a grievance meeting, an employee looks to the side while they search for the date of an earlier conversation. A camera records the direction of the gaze, the timing, the words spoken, and what the hands do next. [navarro what every body is saying, p.17-18]

This cue is gaze-aversion: the eyes leave your face to the side, down, or upward while the person speaks or thinks. Looking away can free attention for recalling, organising, or forming an answer, particularly when the person is comfortable enough to break eye contact. Keep the observation separate from an employment decision: write “looked down after the placement question” rather than “concealed poor performance.” [navarro what every body is saying, p.17-18]

The read goes wrong when you treat looking away as deception or disengagement. Establish the person’s baseline first: during introductions or a low-stakes CV question, note whether they already look down while thinking, how long they pause, and where their hands rest. Initial nervousness in an interview is expected, so a gaze shift carries weight only as a change from that person’s settled pattern. [navarro what every body is saying, p.184-185]

Then check the cluster and timing. If gaze-aversion appears just after a question about a restructure, while the person rubs their neck or repeatedly adjusts their collar, and the same pattern returns when the topic returns, you have a topic-linked discomfort cluster to explore. It identifies a subject that needs context; it does not prove dishonesty, poor performance, or lack of suitability. Ask, pause, and observe before you record anything consequential. [navarro what every body is saying, p.184-185]