the intense eye bulge thing that people do when they're making a great point

this thing:

http://i.imgur.com/DmEjsER.gif

(don't mean to pick on chelsea clinton, but i happened to be watching a jon stewart episode from last week and she did it flagrantly several times)

does this bother you? when people do this to me in real life it always alarms me a bit, and often i start giggling. am i out of line here? do you do the eye bulge thing? when did it start? it feels like something that someone did in a film or tv, and then your neighbor down the street starting doing it, and then it worked its way up the chain via a series of successful lessons learned briefings, and now you can't be a CEO unless your eyes bulge when you're talking about things that you're passionate about.

hypothetical overheard conversation from last year:

did you hear that arrested development is coming back for another season?!? o_o and it's all going up on netflix O_O at the same time!! o_o

I seem to recall that there's a Tyra Banks how-to about being photographed in which she suggest that you close your eyes, count out 1,2, 3 and then "BAM", open your eyes widely and dramatically, and the result will be an intense Blue Steel fashion-moment of looking "striking"; this sequence seems to be part of what can make even ordinary folks look "photogenic", but if mis-handled it can look like you have a thyroid condition

http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Tyra_607dc2_64162.gif

the thing with tyra is that she usually has access to a giant fan just outside of the frame that can majestically blow her hair, along with a talented lighting crew. things aren't so easy for those of in toiling in real life without auxiliary support.

when did it start?

Like most facial expressions, this one probably started when humans were transitioning to upright posture and using rocks for tools. It seems largely involuntary. However, being the sort of animals we are, we also have the capacity to fake it deliberately. It's just that most people who are faking it do so poorly enough that we know when they are acting, like beauty queens with their notoriously pasted-on smiles.

this seems like a part of a broader phenomenon of rampant and routine conversational exaggeration and insincerity

great advances in authoritative oratorical confidence, vol. 9:

the first time that someone laid out, at moderate length, the first point of a multi-pronged argument, looked into the listener's eyes and calmly but forcefully stated

"that's number one"

i believe it was sometime in 1993, and everyone in the room was blown away. all of THAT was number one? we thought he was just explaining his position in an ad hoc fashion, but apparently he has additional points ready to go, in some sort of logical order? this guy is incredible!!

isn't this more to emphasise something rather than something you do during a great point? or to kind of agree with someone's face, like "i know, who are you telling?" sort of thing?

the eyebulge thing? yeah, the context is important. if someone is eyebulging in response to another speaker, that's definitely a sympathetic gesture. but if (imo) someone eyebulges as they're speaking, in my experience it often indicates that they think they just made a great point. hell, they often DO make great points as they eye bulge, there's no denying that.

bulging vs. widening

http://wodumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Al-Pacino-as-John-Milton-in-Warner-Bross-Devils-Advocate-1997-130-650x433.jpg