Maintaining eye contact is a key to effective conversation. However, it is not same as staring. Staring makes people uncomfortable. It evokes lot of negative reactions. The person who maintains high degree of eye contact is considered as warm and friendly while the person who stares is considered as cold and intruding.
Eyes are powerful communicators as they reflect our emotions.
If someone smiles at us but his eyes do not reflect it we consider it a phony smile. When the expressions on our face are also reflected in our eyes they are taken as genuine feelings. Our face is a mirror of our emotions. Though there are cultural differences in the use of various non-verbal cues, facial expression of basic emotions i.e. surprise, fear, anger, disgust, happiness and sadness remains universally same. Facial expressions are dynamic.