People blink excessively for various reasons. The biological function of blinking is to keep the eyes moist. When our eyes become dry due to irritation, eyestrain, or contact lenses, we blink more. In addition, excessive blinking is caused by some medical conditions and treatments such as:
- Tourette syndrome
- Strokes
- Nervous system disorders
- Chemotherapy
Excessive blinking also has psychological and social reasons, which we will discuss in this article. These blinks are referred to as endogenous blinks because they are caused by what is happening inside the person — their thoughts and feelings.
People intuitively know that blinking is part of body language and communication. Studies have also shown that blinks can be communicative signals.1Hömke, P., Holler, J., & Levinson, S. C. (2018). Eye blinks are perceived as communicative signals in human face-to-face interaction. PloS one, 13(12), e0208030. Additionally, researchers have found that our brains are wired to detect blinks on other human faces, suggesting that they play a crucial role in communication.2Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., Berrebi, M., McNeely, M., Prostko, A., & Puce, A. (2011). In the blink of an eye: neural responses elicited to viewing the eye blinks of another individual. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5, 68.
Interpreting excessive blinking
Some people naturally blink more than others. You have to keep a person’s baseline level of blink rate in mind before you interpret their excessive blinking. It’s helpful to note when their blink rate increases from baseline levels during the interaction.
First, you must eliminate the medical, biological, and habitual reasons discussed above. Second, pay attention to the social context in which excessive blinking occurs. Third, look for accompanying body language cues that reinforce your psychological interpretation.
Let’s now go over the possible psychological reasons behind excessive blinking:
1. Stress
We blink excessively when we’re aroused by stress. Stress is a very broad and vague term, I know. I’m talking here specifically about the stress that results from emotional loading. Meaning, the person is experiencing some emotional discomfort.
You’re likely to notice excessive blinking when someone is put under sudden social and emotional pressure.
For example, when someone giving a public speech is asked a difficult question, it creates emotional discomfort. Similarly, people who have difficulty expressing themselves in conversations often experience internal discomfort and tend to blink excessively.
Other body language cues that support this interpretation are irregular speech, looking away or down, and pulling the head back.
2. Anxiety and nervousness
Anxiety is caused when we feel unprepared to deal with an impending situation. To continue with the above example, a person giving a public speech may feel anxious and blink excessively while waiting for an audience member to ask a question. Anxiety is almost always associated with waiting. Blinking excessively out of anxiety is the mind’s way of saying:
“We need to run away. The future looks dangerous.”
Accompanying body language cues that support this interpretation include nail-biting and foot or hand tapping.
One may also blink excessively when they’re nervous. Nervousness is a form of anxiety in the present moment. The present is threatening, not the future. Nervousness creates fear, which creates psychological distress. I’ve written an entire article about nervous body language that you can check out to identify all the supporting cues.
The main ones are:
- Looking down
- Hunched posture
- Crossing the arms
- High-pitched voice
3. Excitement
While arousal by stress is usually negative, arousal can also be positive, as in excitement. When we’re excited by something, we’re likely to blink excessively. It’s the mind’s way of saying:
“This thing is so exciting. I want to blink my eyes excessively, keeping them moist and alert so I can get a good look at this exciting thing.”
In such cases, rapid blinking indicates interest or attraction. Women often blink rapidly, fluttering their eyelashes when they’re being flirtatious. If you may recall, it was done very dramatically by flirtatious female cartoon characters:
Other signs to look for in women when they do this include tilting the head down and to the side, raising shoulders, and clenching fingers on the chest.
4. Blocking
Excessive blinking can be seen as a way to avoid eye contact, to block out something unpleasant when you can’t close your eyes or leave the room. Imagine a celebrity being interviewed on TV. If the interviewer says something that the interviewee finds embarrassing, the latter may blink excessively, communicating:
“I wish I could close my eyes and shut you out. Since this is TV, I can’t. So, I’ll do the next best thing- blink fast to communicate my displeasure.”
People usually do this when they see or hear something they don’t like. Other situations and emotions that trigger ‘blocking out’ excessive blinking include:
- Surprise and disbelief (“I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” accompanied by rubbing eyes)
- Anger (blocking out what angers you)
- Disagreement (Blinking fast = disagreeing with eyes)
- Boredom (blocking out the boring thing)
An interesting case of such blocking behavior is someone blinking excessively when they feel superior. They’re essentially communicating:
“You’re so beneath me. I don’t even want to look at you.”
When the blink is long, it closes the eye for a longer duration, indicating greater displeasure. When someone says or does something we don’t like, we’re likely to blink longer at them in condescension and disapproval. A facepalm often accompanies this facial expression.
5. Lying
This is a tricky one. Whether or not someone blinks excessively during a lie depends on the level of emotional discomfort they’re experiencing. Some liars experience emotional discomfort while lying, some don’t. Studies show that liars are likely to decrease their blink rate when they are lying.3Perelman, B. S. (2014). Detecting deception via eyeblink frequency modulation. PeerJ, 2, e260. This is because of the cognitive load associated with lying. Cognitive load means having to think about multiple things.
Liars have to think about the lie, observe how the listener reacts to it, and appear honest. These things increase their cognitive load, and they hardly blink.4Ledger, H. (2013). The effect cognitive load has on eye blinking. The Plymouth Student Scientist, 6(1), 206-223. They have to keep their eyes (and minds) open. It has been found that sometimes liars who don’t blink while lying blink rapidly after lying.5Leal, S., & Vrij, A. (2008). Blinking during and after lying. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 32, 187-194. This could be because the lie is complete and the cognitive load is relieved. It could also be because they’re stressed that their lie would be caught.
