We’ve all reacted to someone or some event with a dramatic eye roll at one point or another. But why do we roll our eyes?
Humans roll their eyes for a number of reasons: frustration, annoyance and even exhaustion. However, a well-timed eye roll tends to have one explicit meaning to the one on the receiving end, and it’s a lot more dangerous than it may seem.
What does eye rolling communicate?
So often, the only response to that “off-color” joke or awkward interaction you can muster is to roll your eyes. Sometimes it’s not even a conscious response but more of a reflex. All you know is, that small gesture enables you to perfectly (and harmlessly...?) express how you feel.
But what feeling is that exactly? And is your harmless little eye roll really harmless?
“It’s one of the top cues to communicate contempt,” says Maureen Keeley, author and professor of communication studies at Texas State University. “It shows a total lack of respect and tells the other person that you hold them with very little value.”
According to Keeley, eyes express contempt in more ways than by rolling them. The act of looking someone up and down without saying anything is another eye behavior that communicates judgment and disdain.
NEED TO HIDE THOSE JUDGMENTAL EYES? Shop for sunglasses at an optical store near you or an online eyewear retailer.
How has the meaning of eye rolling changed over time?
Believe it or not, the current interpretation of eye rolling hasn’t always been what it is today. It’s held several different meanings in the past that weren’t related to irritation or contempt.
In a 1594 poem, William Shakespeare used eye rolling to communicate lust and aggressive passion. An immoral, villainous character looks upon the object of his affection and proceeds to “roll his greedy eyeballs in his head” — not exactly a modern interpretation of “romance” and certainly not how we now engage in eye rolling.
In the 1800s, Charles Dickens described a woman on her deathbed in "Household Words: Eleanor Clare’s Journal for 10 Years" as “rolling her eyes fearfully.” And in the children’s book "Where the Wild Things Are," published in 1963, the monsters “rolled their terrible eyes.”
It wasn’t until the 1980s that eye rolling became a sign of dismissal. "The Hardy Boys" mysteries often describe eye rolling during tiffs between Chet Morton and his sister, Iola. Because The Hardy Boys were a part of popular culture, eye rolling as a sign of annoyance was established in society.
