I dont know if its true or not but what your opinions are on the subject
Looking at them, probably not. Looking through them is another story, try doing this with a cat. Not joking, you can feel them looking through you and making decisions on to run or stay.
If one looks at someone's face, then the eyes are mostly looked into first. This kinda explains why the word "eyes" is used instead of "mouth" or "nose". Also esthetically this is justified. But the idea here is to get an impression of the whole face. So when someone "looks" sad, then this expresses that the soul is troubled. The same goes up for other emotional expressions.