WEBVTT - The Science of Staring 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.560 Works dot com. Hey, you're walking to stuff to go 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.680 in your mind. My name is Robert Lamp. I'm Julie Douglass. Julie, 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.360 have you engaged in a good staring contest? Reson? I'm 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.680 trying to do it with you right now. Don't blink. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.119 I didn't. Don't kind of like narrow my eyes. Maybe 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:26.439 I used see the things you never know when you 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.600 go sometimes, I guess, so, yeah, but yeah, this is 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.120 something that I used to engage in with my brother 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.520 all the time. Yeah, did you Did you tend to win? 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.480 Or is it a stalemate? Did you just both stare 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.080 at each other un till your eyeballs dried up? And 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.040 he's pretty competitive, so I probably just got tired of 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.519 it after a while and blinked just to end it. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.160 Staring is weird. It is a strange thing. I feel 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.360 like we've touched this before. But like, the more you 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.160 stare at somebody, the weirder it becomes, the weirder their 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.840 face becomes, and they start looking like just alien monster creatures, 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.480 you know, just because you you begin to to take 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.360 sort of the default version of what they look like, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.880 and and and deconstruct it. Well, remember when we were 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.600 looking at the Bloody Mary studies about staring into the 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.000 mirror and if you stare hard enough and long enough, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.960 your brain starts to freak out. And because it's just 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.280 staring at that one bit and starting to sort of say, Okay, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.040 I'm gonna start throwing all sorts of weird images in here. 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.280 So hopefully you're not sitting in front of someone and 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.720 staring at them so intently that that's happening. But you're right, 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.720 it does kind of cause you to to sort of 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.160 reconfigure everything. Yeah. Now, I will say in in these 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.400 podcast recording sessions, I tend to make more eye contact 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:41.520 with you than I make with most people because we 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.119 are directly across from each other, and if I'm not 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:46.600 looking at the my notes are staring off into the 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.360 whole distance. Uh, then I'm having to engage with you 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.080 because this is kind of a conversation performance that we 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.360 do here. It's true, and you know, we're taking visual 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.880 cues off of each other too, like hey, wrap it up, 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.880 or hey, yeah that's really interesting. More and more so, Yeah, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.280 steering obviously is something that we do as humans for 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.000 a variety of reasons, and yet it's a bit of 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.440 a mystery, right Yeah. And then there's there're whole these 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.520 whole elements too of uh you know, personal space and 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.240 the cheesemo. Um. A friend of mine was sent me 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.320 some sort of Facebook correspondence because he is friends with 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.639 all the people who went to high school with UM, 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.080 follows them on Facebook. So they'll inevitably say just weird 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.480 and stupid things or things that just don't really sink 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.120 with your own personal worldview, including like one dude who 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.280 lifts a lot and maybe doesn't do a lot of lifts, 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.360 lifts weights, lifts, you know, hits the gym and then 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.120 he starts off on this whole diet tribe that that 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.720 kind of breaks the world down into into those who 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.040 lift and those that don't, or those that lift a 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.400 lot and those that don't lift as much. And and 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.160 it was about like making eye contact with individuals on 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.040 the train or on the street, and how every and 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.920 and implying that every incident of this with men making 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.280 eye tak contact with each that it is a stare 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.760 down to see who is the alpha a k who 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.440 lives the most. Okay, well, that's very interesting for two reasons. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.200 One is, and this is auncdotal, of course, but when 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.359 I've been at gym's before, I have noticed that people 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.919 who are lifting are always staring at themselves, like really, 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.680 like you noticed this, and they don't break in the mirror. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.280 In the mirror, they're like staring almost like the person 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.799 in the mirror is the aggressor. Okay. So the second 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.160 thing about that, like they're like they're in an ape 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.120 that doesn't realize that the ape in the in the 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.000 mirror is their own reflections, right, that keeps staring at me? 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.560 Can't they see me with all my weight? But I 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.000 have noticed that over and over again. And David Turberg 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.160 at all of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.920 and uh in some other researchers, they wanted to see 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.760 if this is really true that we stare for dominance, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.240 that this is really automatic for humans. So they devised 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:02.000 a test in which participants were presented different colored ovals 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.360 and different colored dots. Seems pretty straightforward, right, What they 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.320 were advised to do is to try to popping up 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.280 on the screen in front of you. Yeah, those those 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.320 ovals are popping up on the screen. They're the same 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.160 color as the dots, and they're saying, hey, just visually 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.600 matched that oval to the dot when it comes up. 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.840 But they're sneaky the researchers, because a split second before 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.479 the oval appears, a face of the same color appeared 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.680 with either angry, happy, or neutral expression. Okay, So what 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:32.840 they were doing is they were testing to see how 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.960 long it took for people to look away from faces 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.240 with different emotions, and they compared this data with a 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.840 questionnaire that the participants completed that measured how dominant they 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.359 were in social situations. So if you had some of 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.520 the weightlifters here, no doubt they would rate, you know, 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.920 pretty high on social dominance. So the results were that 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.200 people who are more motivated to be dominant were slower 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.640 to look away from angry faces, and then people who 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:03.200 were motivated to seek rewar gazed at the happy faces longer. So, 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.159 in other words, the assumptions were right here is that 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.360 there is a bit of face or eyes staring in 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.800 terms of dominance and trying to say this is this 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.160 is a space that I'm occupying and I'm dominating right now. 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.560 It's weird because on one level I totally buy that, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:22.680 but on the other It's like I think about, like 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.560 being on the train and if someone is like staring 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.800 at me with crazy eyes, I'm going to look away 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.039 because it just doesn't make like why would I. Why 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.760 would I engage that person? Like? Why would I? It's like, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.279 all right, you're an alpha. It's great that you know 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.400 you're covering your own vomit. But your alpha, So I'm 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.200 gonna let you. But that's the extreme extreme, right, that's 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.000 the crazy eyes. What if someone is just like, what 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.360 if there's another you, Robert who just happens to be 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.280 across from you staring at you? Well, I I would 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.200 not stare back. Probably. I mean, do I know this 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.160 other me? Or do I say, oh, that's me, that's 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.760 my topplicating You don't know you. I don't me. You're 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:06.840 a stranger, okay, just another person of my general making model. Yes, 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.880 well no, I wouldn't want to really make eye contact 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.640 with him. Why would I do that? Okay, So I 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.280 can't believe I'm admitting this. But there's a seven year 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:17.719 old in my neighborhood. He was kind of a toughie, 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:20.839 and he's always kind of saying like awful things to people. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.160 And I mean he's seven, right, so you don't take 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.760 him that seriously. But I have to say that I 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.400 was backing out of my driveway not too long ago. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.960 Then he was. He was like trash talking, and I 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.920 knew he was trashing for backing out of your driveway. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.159 I don't know this kid, I'm telling you anyway, So 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.159 I backed at the car and then you know, I 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.760 was parallel with him. He's on his bike, and I 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.880 sat there and I stared. I did the stair thing, 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:48.800 and I didn't even know at the time that that 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.200 was what I was doing. But I wasn't going to 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.800 roll down the window. So young man, don't trash talk, right, 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:56.680 But you know, I just sat there and gave him 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.560 the what I now understand was the dominant stare huh. 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.000 And we sat there and it was finally him who 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.000 broke it. But that was my way of saying, step off, kid, 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.160 I'm just trying to get to work. See now, I 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.960 find that if i'm if I'm at the train and 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.120 there's somebody like that, not a seven year old kid 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.360 that's threatening me. Yeah. And by the way, I know 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:17.480 how lame it is to do a stare off with 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.160 a seven year old. I get it. But now you 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.080 had to put your foot down. I think you did 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.120 the right thing here. But but I find that there's 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.360 someone that's being a little starry or being a little 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:29.920 kind of like, you know, tough guy in the train. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.760 Like my gut instinct, if I'm thinking about it, if 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.880 I'm engaging in it and letting my ego engage in 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.240 in this kind of thing, which is probably a bad 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.840 idea to begin with, my response will be to not 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.240 acknowledge them at all, to sort of like stare straight 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.760 past them or through them. Um so is it so? 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.680 In my own mind, I'm thinking, I'm not engaging with you, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.640 so you can't possibly be the alpha in this situation 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.200 because I can't even see you. You're so non alpha. 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.160 I like that. I like that. It's like, there's nound 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.280 really stupid. When I actually take it out into language, 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.480 it makes sense. I mean, it's all pretty stupid because 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.679 it's like the idea of like dudes on a train 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.240 having to establish a hierarchy of who's tough and who isn't, 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.280 and who lifts and who lifts more. I mean, it's 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.200 it's utterly ridiculous, and and I want and I my 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.680 instinct is to just throw it all out and say 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.160 that it's all just a bunch of molarchy. But I 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.480 do have to acknowledge there's these social dynamics exist. They do, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.760 and staring is a really big way to try to 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.760 ferret out the emotional states of others anyway, right, because 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:32.800 if you were on the train you saw crazy eyes, 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:34.480 you have readed your days because you knew that was 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.880 no good. You're not gonna lock eyes. That's not good 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:38.960 news for you. They're going to think I want to 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.760 talk exactly, and you don't want to talk um. In 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.200 the article why we stare even when we don't want 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.760 to buy Dan Muslaf writing for Wired, she says that 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.040 humans are highly social animals, and rather than remaining among 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.560 our family or heard from birth to death, we venture 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.560 out and we have to do this in a safe way. 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.320 So we have evolved a rough screening process with this stare. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.040 And she says that you know you're sweeping. Stare is 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.280 giving you all sorts of data that gets processed in 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.520 your magdala. Now, this is the area of the burning 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.640 that is associated with emotions and judgment, and so that's 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.160 how you deem if a person is safe or if 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.840 they're dodgy, and you've got that split second reassembly of 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.000 their face. By the way, while you're doing this um 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.720 in your mind's eye, and when you're reassembling that person's face, 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.400 you're looking for things like does this person look familiar 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.160 to me? Does this person have an emotion of sadness, happiness? Anger? Yeah? 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:33.920 Do they do? They look like they're a part of 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.600 my group? They look like that they are merely out 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.199 in my group now because they're lost. Do they look 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.680 like they have some sort of malicious intent? And yeah, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.800 we do all of this without even really thinking about it. Uh. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:47.640 In fact, we we often do this kind of thing 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.840 and then feel bad about it. You know. If you'll 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.120 you'll be like, how, who's that shady guy walking down 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.840 my street? And then a part of you like, no, no, uh, 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.200 he probably has a legitimate reason to be here. He 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.640 might be a missionary or a salesman. Don't jump to conclusions. 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:03.560 But they're still that part of your brain that instantly 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.720 passes judgment, right, And in the article, it's that that 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.880 whole part of like why we stay even we don't 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.240 want to. We're doing this too again, as you say, 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:13.960 like fare it out, like is this person here for 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.720 harm or good or what's going on us? Or are Yeah, 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.240 and and they were saying in the article, or Dan 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.959 Muslaf was saying that if the person deviates greatly from 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.319 the norm, for for instance, if the person had a 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.319 face transplant, right, that's probably about as much as you 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.160 can debat it from the norm. Then then your stare 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.160 really gets locked down because now your brain is again 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.120 reassembling the face, trying to make sense of it and 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.200 knowing that it doesn't make sense, so it's trying to 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:43.760 fill in those gaps, and you're going to stay a 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.240 longer and longer and longer. Yeah, it's I mean, when 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.360 you encounter any level of disfigurement or even just like 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.679 mild not even disfigure but even like mild a symmetry, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.560 well not even not mild a symmetry, but say, um, 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.840 a symmetry that you haven't seen before, because you certainly 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.560 easily get used to a symmetry in any individual's face 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.360 or like like one eyes looking off a little bit 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:06.920 to the side, but the first time you encounter it 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:08.560 can be a little a little off putting. But if 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.280 it's something severe, if you get into that weird space, again, 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.760 where every instinct in your body is to look and 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.760 analyze and forget what's going on. But then you feel 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.199 just increasingly bad about doing it because we've all been 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.640 told from an early age, because in an early age, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.079 we don't know, and that that's when we do things 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.880 like stare at a diminutively sized individual in a grocery 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:30.760 store and point at them and ask our mother what 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.719 they are. My sister did that. Um, that's when we 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:35.599 we don't really understand the social constraints we have to 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.920 work with, and we're told above all else, do not 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.120 point at people who are different, do not stare at 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.760 people who are different. Uh, But we have that strong 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.400 instinct to do so. Right. Largely humans are not meaning jerks. 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:48.920 They're just trying to figure out the discrepancies. Yeah. Like 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.600 I was in a nursing home once visiting my grandmother 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.560 and there was an individual there that and I was 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.880 again I didn't want to stare, So I don't even 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.240 really have a clear version of their vision of what 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.959 this person looked like in my mind because I didn't 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.480 go back for more details because it felt wrong. But 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.360 I remember their face was like just a black hole. 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.240 And I'm not even sure how that worked kind of 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.640 physical level, but it it was that it was it 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:16.920 was weird because there was the pole to stare and 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.560 it was a very strong poll uh that that I 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:21.679 just had to really push it down with all the 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.160 social rules that were in place, and you do you 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.199 have to tell your brain to shut that off, right, um. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.080 And this is something we do all the time, right, 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.520 because we don't want to make others feel uncomfortable with 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.720 our stairs. Yeah. Well, another aspect of the whole others 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.480 in us safe and risk all. You know, disease factors 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.200 into that as well. Does this person look like they 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.760 are healthy? And if they are not healthy, then how 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:45.160 does that factor into my acceptance of their um, their 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.040 their presence within the boundaries of my group? Right, there's 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.240 your amygdala at work trying to make all right. So 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.840 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.400 we will get into uh, not only the idea of 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.000 us staring at other people, but the thing that individuals 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:12.240 are staring at us. All right, we are back in 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.400 Robert Lamb. Have you ever had the sense that someone 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.400 was staring at you? He turned around and and lo 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.520 and behold, that person was staring at you. I do 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.840 get the feeling that people are staring at me sometimes, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.120 but again, since I tend to be more passive, my 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.480 reaction is to not engage them and to continue looking 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.400 at my book or out the window or if I 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:36.640 but but if I can, then I might try to 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.440 check a reflection to see if I'm being stared at 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.719 to confirm okay. But then there are alway those those 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.600 moments too. What do you look up from whatever you're 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.280 doing and someone's eyes dart away from you, and then 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.600 instantly you you think, oh, they were staring at me. Yeah, 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:51.439 And I have to say I've felt that way before, 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:53.560 or like you felt like someone was staring at you 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.440 happened and behold they were. And this is called the 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.800 psychic staring effect. It's that idea that you can really 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.360 sense this, that this might be, you know, another one 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.439 of our senses that we have um or the converse 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.280 of this is that you yourself could stare so intensely 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.360 at someone else that you could cause them to turn 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.240 around and look at you, like a cartoon effect for 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.760 the eyeballs, like come out of the head um and 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.720 elongate and actually hit something that they're looking at. Yes, yeah, yeah, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.160 and it happens all the time, right yeah. Yeah. Um. Now, 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.720 according to skeptic Um, the first scientific studies of what 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:35.400 is called PSC were reported in by British psychologist Edward B. Titchener. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.240 He was interested to know if this was a thing, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.360 because it feels real when when you're experiencing it, it 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.000 feels like you're actually sensing someone stairs. Yeah. But now, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:49.080 all of the studies he did, they were all negative. So, um, 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.520 we don't know how many subjects were involved or how 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.440 actually the studies were conducted, but we do know that 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.960 his findings at least were negative. But along comes someone 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:03.040 called Rupert Sheldrick, and he's done several informal and formal 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:09.640 studies that show that PSC is real ish. Um, you 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.240 know his studies would bear that out. Now, others who 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.920 have tried to replicate the studies get negative results. Um. 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.040 And when they replicate his studies, by the way, they're 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.840 they're using random process and other strict controls that he 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.160 has been criticized for not using. Well that's a red 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.240 flag right there, right, So yeah, it's always a red 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.520 flag if you can't replicate the results over and over 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.280 and right. Um, So I would say, at best, the 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.480 jury is still out. At worst, it does seem like 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.600 this is something that is it's not a thing with 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.800 a capital ty. Yeah, it's researching the material. I really 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.320 had to fall into the suspicion that it is not 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.400 a thing, that it's merely um, a combination of two things. Really. 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.120 First of all, it's it's about superstition and uh. And 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.320 then the other side of it is that, of course 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.960 it is a it's a false positive. Okay. This goes 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.480 into the whole idea of error management theory, which we've 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.720 we've touched on before in discussing belief in the supernatural, 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.520 belief in lucky charms, uh, various things that are not real. 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.440 So when it comes to cognition, we have two types 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.640 of errors cognition and dealing with situations of uncertainty. You 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.320 can make a type one era, a false positive, in 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.440 which we decide that a risk or benefit exists when 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.000 it does not. Okay. So we make a type one 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.200 error when we think that there's a savor tooth tiger 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.560 behind us and then they're not there. Okay. Then there's 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.680 a type two error, a false negative, and this entails 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.400 failing to notice a risk or benefit that exists. So 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.680 this is when we think there might be a savor 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:43.840 tooth tiger, but we don't act on it, and then 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:45.760 we're eating, so we made a We're like, oh, I 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.040 don't think there's anything there, and then we're consumed. So 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.440 it's better to think that there might be that savoth. 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.160 You can argue the nature selects for those who jump 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:58.080 to conclusions, because if I react every time like there's 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.600 a savor tooth tiger tiger, then it more likely that 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.600 I will react correctly when the savory tooth tiger actually 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.920 comes for me. And likewise, if I always assume there's 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:08.639 no savor tooth tiger on the other side of the 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.359 high grasses, then I have increased odds of winding up 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.240 in a savor tooths belly. Okay, So that falls in 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.680 line perfectly with a study in Current Biology by the 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.399 University of Sydney called humans have an expectation that gaze 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:24.960 is directed for them. I think the title because if 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.520 someone's looking at me, they might have some some ill intentions. 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.840 So it's the same thing. Yeah, So the idea is 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.360 that we always think that people are staring at us, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.040 so or we always expect that they are. So if 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.400 you feel like there's a sense like, oh, someone's staring 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.640 at me right now, you may look around quickly and 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.359 just assume that person is staring at you. So the 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.760 researchers say that this is largely protective, as you say, 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.919 and that many primates, a direct gaze is threatening or aggressive, 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.240 and you'd want to make sure that you didn't miss this, right, 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.560 you'd want to know if someone was trying to threaten you. 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.679 So what they did, of course, is they took some 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.760 participants with computer generated faces in front of them, and 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.480 then they made it difficult for the observer for the 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.040 participants by obscuring the direction of the gaze by rotating 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.600 the heads slightly from previous positions, and they asked the 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:22.359 participants to judge the relative gaze directions. Overwhelmingly, uh, when 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.000 they were in these uncertain positions, people will more likely 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.280 to judge that even this computer generated face was staring 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:34.560 directly at them. So, you know, just a tiniest little 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:39.000 bit of the gaze change, they think, oh, it's still 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.760 looking at me, even when it wasn't. So that's why 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.680 the researchers say this is something that perhaps we're just 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.080 hardwired to believe that people are staring at us. So 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.680 if you I'm sure you've seen this in the notice 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.639 this in the train before. If someone is sitting across 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.760 from you with sunglasses on, don't you for a while think, 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.280 I know you're staring at me, staring at me? What 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.400 are you thinking? Are are And then you realize suddenly, okay, 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.400 they have sunglasses on. They could be asleep right now. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.120 It's true. Yeah, but I but I often find myself 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.320 in the past. I don't really wear sunglasses much in 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.600 the train anymore, but I have worn sunglasses on the 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:15.080 train and have thought to myself, I have free reign. 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.679 I can stare at whoever and wherever I want to. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:19.880 And so I'll stare at this person or I'll stare 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.159 at that person. You know. Um, so I I know 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:24.919 if I'm doing it, other people are doing it. So 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.560 it's just the wild West open there. But isn't it 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:29.760 just because you don't have that data, your mind goes 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.359 a little bit crazy and you just assume that again, 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:34.280 I'm going to make that U I'm gonna make that 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.880 type one error. I'm just gonna assume that they're looking 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.120 at me and then take either the you know, take 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.239 it either as a compliment or a threat. There you go. 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.040 So the next stage of this research is to try 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.800 to figure out if this bias, this cognitive cognitive bias 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.719 really is learned orientate and what it might tell us 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.400 about other mental conditions, because it's shown that people who 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.720 have autism are less able to tell whether someone is 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.760 actually looking at them or is there ring at them, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.160 and then people with social anxiety, on the other hand, 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.200 have a higher tendency to think that they are under 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:10.040 the stare of others more often. So it's interesting bit 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.280