Exchange a glance with someone, and then look away. Do you realize that you have made a statement? Hold the glance for a second longer, and you have made a different statement. Hold it for three seconds, and the meaning has changed again. For every social situation, there is permissible time that you can hold a person's gaze without being intimate, rude, or aggressive. If you are on an elevator, what gaze-time are you permitted? To answer this question, consider what you typically do. You are very likely give other passengers a quick glance to size them up(打量) and to assure them that you mean no threat. Since being close to another person signals the possibility of interaction, you need to emit a signal telling others you want to be left alone. So you cut off eye contact, which sociologist Erving Goffman( 1963 ) calls 'a dimming of the lights'. You look down at the floor, at the indicator lights, anywhere but into another passenger's eyes. Should you break the rule against staring at a stranger on an elevator, you will make the other person exceedingly uncomfortable, and you are likely to feel a bit strange yourself. If you hold eye contact for more than three seconds, what are you telling another person? Much depends on the person and the situation. For instance, a man and a woman communicate interest in this manner. They typically gaze at each other for about three seconds at a time, and then drop their eyes down for three seconds, before letting their eyes meet again. But if one man gives another man a three-second-plus stare, he signals— 'I know you. ' 'I am interested in you. ' or 'You look peculiar and I am curious about you. ' This type of stare often produces hostile feelings. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that______.