Is The Viral ‘Sticky Eyes’ Trend The Most Powerful Dating Tool Out There?

If you’ve been stuck in a dating moratorium and want to break free, this new viral dating tool might come in handy. The next time you’re in a bar or in a social setting with a lot of people and you happen to notice someone who could be a potential date, you might want to hit them with ‘sticky eyes’.

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It might sound like a particularly icky superpower from the Marvel/DC universe, but it’s essentially just some good old meaningful eye contact. In a now-viral video on TikTok and Instagram, influencer Chelsea Anderson shares her foolproof hack to get anyone transfixed with just a gaze.

Anderson, who calls herself a professional life hacker, claims that this is one of her most powerful hacks and it never fails her.

What Is The Viral ‘Sticky Eyes’ Flirting Technique?

According to Anderson, the technique plays out in three simple steps. You start by making direct eye contact with the person you want to attract. Once the eye contact is made, you immediately look away as if “you’ve been caught”.

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The next time you make eye contact with them, she advises the viewers to not look away and hold the stare for an “uncomfortably long” time until they break away first. Finally, you need to avoid looking at them again. “In about 45 seconds, they will be right in front of you, as if they had been summoned psychically by you.”

It is, however, important to note that you should maintain a friendly and open expression while looking at the person. A cold or blank expression while maintaining prolonged eye contact can make others feel uncomfortable.

The Science Behind The Success Of The ‘Sticky Eyes’ Flirting Technique

In an interview with USA Today, dating coach Amy Ryan says, “The TikTok explaining ‘sticky eyes’ is essentially repackaging a classic flirting technique, which is combining different types of eye contact to signal romantic interest." Ryan, who has written about this in her book Breakup Bootcamp: The Science Of Rewiring Your Heart (released in 2020), says “It’s not necessarily the most attractive person who gets approached. It’s the one who signals they’re open to connection.”

A study by Japanese researchers, published in the National Library of Medicine, said that eye contact can activate the limbic mirror system. This means that the same neurons that are firing in someone’s brain will also fire in yours when you share eye contact with them. Another study from 2007, published in The Royal Society Publishing, claimed that eye contract attraction is a real thing and human beings find other people more attractive when they make eye contact.

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Maintaining and signalling interest with eye contact has become a lost skill these days, with everyone depending on the crutch of smartphones to get through social situations. It has been proven time and again that prolonged eye contact can make someone appear more likeable, confident and charismatic.

Anderson presents her hypothesis of why ‘sticky eyes’ work without fail every time in her video. “It’s such a risk to approach someone in the wild,” she says, “Even if you think you want to meet someone, your energy can be pretty closed off or you’re probably in a large group of people which is so intimidating for someone to come up to. Doing ‘sticky eyes’ is basically providing a giant cushion for this person’s ego. It makes it risk-free to approach you.”

Would you try the ‘sticky eyes’ trick the next time you go out?