"The look of love is in your eyes ... The look of love is saying so much more than just words could ever say." —Dusty Springfield

"Mona Lisa you are the lady with a mystic smile. Do you smile to tempt the lovers?" —Nat King Cole

Romantic love, including sexual interactions, involves complex interactions. How come that seemingly passive activities, such as eye contact and a smile, are considered crucial in them?

"No man is truly married until he understands every word his wife is NOT saying." —Unknown

Two major models of romantic love are the caring and the dialogue models. The caring model, which is most suitable to parental love, focuses on the beloved’s needs and the need to give without expectation to receive. The dialogue model, which is more suitable for romantic love, focuses on the shared activities, and the need to bring out the best from each other (Ben-Ze’ev, 2019). The dialogue model considers the shared connection between the partners as the bedrock of love and views shared emotional states and joint activities as the foundational features of the connection. The connection amplifies the flourishing of the lovers as well as the flourishing of their relationship (Krebs, 2015). Indeed, a recent study found that higher levels of joint savoring in romantic relationships are positively associated with indicators of relationship well-being and quality of life (Larsen et al., 2025). I believe that eye contact and smiling are crucial in initiating and promoting romantic dialogue.

Here are what random people said about the role of eye contact in sex (Reddit

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