Stop seagulls from trying to steal your food, with your eyes.

Madeleine Goumas, a postgraduate researcher at Exeter University, ventured to various seaside spots armed with a sealed bag of chips and a stopwatch. Once at the seaside, she’d place the chips about an arm’s length away and timed out when the seagulls swooped.

During half the test she’d look away, pretending not to notice the birds, and during the other half of the test, she’d lock eye with them to see if it would change their reactions. She found out that eye contact made the birds nervous. “We found that they are less likely to approach food when they are being watched,” Goumas said. “Sometimes they would jump and stop dead when they realized they were being watched.”

Goumas published her findings in Biology Letters, but what the most surprising thing she learned was that not all of the seagulls tried to steal her chips. Out of 74 birds, about 26% of them were bold enough to get the food, the rest weren’t interesting.

It seems eye contact typically held them back for 21 seconds, so you may still need to shoo them away… but eye contact will help!