WEBVTT - What's the Deal With Staring? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:05.240 Welcome to Stuff you should know from house Stuff Works 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:13.720 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.720 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and guest producer Role is 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.440 actually staying in here. I believe he's staring at It's 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.720 as funny as we speak. It's making my cheek blush 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.440 just the one though, Yeah, which is weird. It's a tease, 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.640 is what that is. I'm anything. I'm a big tease. 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:39.640 Uh spoiler alert? Okay, now that was it that your 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.320 cheek is hot? It's a post spoiler alert post. I 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.519 don't know if those work count. I think you can 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:46.839 set the internet off into a frenzy if you do 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.040 it the wrong way. Oh yes, we've done that before. 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.560 Oh yeah, that's right, say spoiler alert beforehand. Apparently. Yeah, 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:55.600 I thought you just spoiled it and the said spoiler 0:00:55.600 --> 0:01:01.160 alert right as a tag. It's not how it works, Uh, Chuck. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.000 Have you ever been to the grocery store? Uh? Yeah, 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.319 I was there yesterday. Were you? Did you go down 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.280 the steed buy cereal? I don't really buy cereal much either. 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.240 I I um hate cereal. You know. I'm just glad 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.160 it's still around but I just don't buy it myself. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.399 Every once a while go down the cereal, it's just 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:25.240 almost to like visit old friends. Like there's the Count Chocula, 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.800 there's Fred Flintstone, or what the heck happened to Lucky 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:30.959 the Leopard con he doesn't look anything like you did 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.920 when we were kids, you know, look at Tony Tiger. Yes, 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:36.800 while while I'm walking down the cereal, I noticed like 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.400 they don't like hold my my gaze like they used to, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.200 actually because you're not seven. No. Actually, there's this study 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.000 that found and I think to the last couple of 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.560 years at Cornell University, they have like a whole food 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.440 psychology program. You know, I love that stuff. Um, And 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.800 they did a study of like I think sixty five 0:01:55.800 --> 0:02:01.400 different cereals and found that, um, the average gaze downward 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.520 gays is about a nine point six degree gays right 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:10.480 of just your normal human walking in the serial. So 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.400 like if you were looking at Tony the Tiger and 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.079 you were you were me in our normal adult height, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.840 he wouldn't be locking eyes with us. But if we 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.800 were little kids, he'd be looking right into our eyes. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:25.239 To Can Sam, To Can Sam, Lucky Captain Crunch which 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:29.080 we talked about. Yeah, the honey Comb's Maniac. Yeah, the 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.760 Goalen fiber stick. Sure, um, all of those guys they 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.239 look into little kid's eyes. And the whole reason why 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.560 is because, um, it builds brand trust and brand loyalty. 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:44.120 Among um cereal boxes where the character is looking right 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.840 into your kid's eyes on the cereal aisle, there's like 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:51.800 pent brand loyalty compared to like six among boxes that 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.400 don't have little characters looking into your kid's eyes. And 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.679 it all just kind of goes to show you, Like 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:04.880 the stair even being stared at by a lifeless cardboard 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.919 cartoon character is that powerful that it can It can 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:14.440 make you say, I want to eat what's inside of you? 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.359 You know, So the gaze it's powerful. Or like the 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.720 old days when I was single and I would go 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.960 into a bar and just like go right up beside 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.480 a lady and just stare at her face until she 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.280 looked at me. Make your eyes as wide as you 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.800 possibly could. They love that stuff. Sure, very powerful. It 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.800 shows what a panther you are. Creep is what that 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.040 would be. Sure, Yeah, And I mean that's a that's 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.640 a really great point. Like if it's a leprechn on 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.400 a cereal box. You're not threatened or intimidated by it, 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.280 but there's still some sort of power to its gaze. Right, 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.840 if you're another human being that is so powerful, it 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:55.120 has to be wielded very delicately. Because people don't like 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.600 to be stared at, as as this this House to 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.839 Works article points out, it's simply rude to stare. Yeah, 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.120 it can be. I mean, depending on what culture you 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.960 live in, it can be everything from intimidation tactic to 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.360 a to an affront to like something that's very aggressive. 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.720 Um yeah, it means a lot of things around the world. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:17.680 But I didn't find a lot of cultures where it 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.000 was super nice. No, the closest thing I can find 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:25.440 was Argentina being called out um as it being socially 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:29.080 acceptable for men to stare at women. That doesn't mean 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:34.680 that it's welcomed, right, it's not welcome necessarily or wanted, 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.520 but it's not like what are you doing kind of thing. 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.760 But I couldn't find any culture around the world where 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.080 just outright staring is just normal and fine. It seems 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.680 to be like universally it makes people uncomfortable. It seems like, yeah, well, 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.360 this article we're gonna draw from a few, but one 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:54.440 from our own website. Why is it rude to stare? 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.040 Which it never really answers Actually no, it doesn't. Just 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.599 sort of give some reason stands to around. But um, 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.760 I did think they made a good point whoever wrote 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:07.960 this early on in the article, uh, that humans are 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:13.600 constantly categorizing things when we look around at anything, uh 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.599 from inanimate objects. You know, that desk looks comfortable, or 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.960 that chair looks nice, or that car is cool, or 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:27.000 that person is white. Uh, that person is a woman, 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.640 that person is attractive, that person isn't. Like we're always 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:36.200 scanning and dropping things into different mental boxes. And uh 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.120 so they make a pretty good point. I think whenever 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.720 something is just slightly off, um, like that person has 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:48.600 one leg it just the brain has an instinct to 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.400 to stay stay on that gaze a little longer because 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.039 it just disrupts the normal. Like that's a thing, that's 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:56.800 the thing, that's the thing, and that's a difference. So 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:58.520 let me look at that for a minute. And the 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.160 the whole idea behind us walking around constantly scanning our 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.520 environment is this idea that we've evolved to At first, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.480 I guess probably hunt for predators. Remember, in like the 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.400 gun control episode, we talked about how humans can recognize 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.400 a gun in the environment as readily as recognizing snakes 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.279 or spiders. So we're training to to pluck stuff out 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:22.960 of our environment that may or may not be a 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:28.640 threat as we've kind of moved away from the possibility of, um, 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:33.440 you know, a bear eating you. Typically it still happens infrequently, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.560 but for the most part, we're not threatened by bears. Right. Um, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.119 We've we've that same ability has kind of moved into 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.279 this social realm where that whole in group out group 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.080 categorization that we've talked about two really kind of comes up. 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.840 And so we're walking around saying, you're okay, You're all right, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.080 you may be a threat, So I'm gonna move over 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.360 here on the other side of the street. I don't 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.440 necessarily recognize you, but we can do all this like 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.760 pretty quickly. Right. But it's like you were saying, if 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.400 you see somebody with missing a face, for example, is 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:08.560 a good is a good one? Um? And I read 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.240 this Wired article that cited a woman who basically was 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.040 like she her husband shot her in the face, and man, 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.280 she walked around before a face transplant, like missing a 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.120 significant section in the middle of her face, and she 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.440 just was stared at all the time. She said she 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.600 had to get used to it. Um. This article points 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:29.760 out that all you're doing necessarily is taking in more 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:34.120 information than you're used to, and we we do that 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.280 by staring. It's a result of saying, there's more info 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.760 than I can just get through with a quick glance. 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.320 I need to look at you a little while longer. Uh. 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.960 And then there was a study at usc AS in 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.240 southern California telve. This one makes a lot of sense 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.120 to me because I think what you're doing is you're 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:57.560 satisfying a curiosity like, um, I guess Oscars histories is 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.200 a weird example now that he's gone through that thing. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.080 But let's say pre that, uh, pre that incident, you 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.520 would see someone like Oscar Oscar pistories and say, wow, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.520 I want to see how this guy runs without legs. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.400 So I'm gonna look at him put on those blades 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.440 and and run. And of course he's a you know, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.360 it's a spectator sport anyway. But I mean it happened 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.119 any day, like, uh, someone who's handicapped, Like, I wonder 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.880 how they drive a car with no legs, so it's 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.880 very interesting. So I'm gonna look at that and watch 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.680 them get in the car and have a specially outfitted 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:41.200 car with hand operation. So it's it's it's weird because 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:43.920 it's in that case, I don't think it's rude, but 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.600 you're walking a fine line, but it is still very rude. 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.040 Another UM non murderous example, like the second one you gave, 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.559 is UM. There was in this study at USC they 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:58.320 used UM women with a novel biological effectors, meaning in 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.559 this case that their arms hadn't fully developed, but they 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.600 were performing functions that people would normally use their hands 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.679 for with their residual limbs. Right, So someone might be like, wow, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.000 how is she painting or cooking her dinner? Exactly? But 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.320 at the same time, you're right, you're walking that fine line, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.560 so you're staring, but maybe you look away, but then 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.200 you look back and you kind of to take it 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.720 in in pieces, because we are in this weird position 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.480 where we want to take in but we're also socialized 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.240 to not stare as well, it's rude. Well, what they 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.280 determined in the study though, which sort of backs up 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.600 the idea that it is satisfying the curiosity is they 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.839 looked at the brains of people like staring at uh, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.040 let's say the lady without the formed limbs. And after 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.679 they looked for a little while, the brain lit up 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:49.679 at first like, oh my gosh, what am I seeing? 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.360 This is super interesting, and then the brain normalized. I 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:54.839 was like, oh, okay, well that's how she cooks her dinner. 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.800 That's really neat exactly, and then they were able to 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.560 interact normally after that point. So it's almost like, as 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:06.960 long as your brain hasn't gotten enough information to its satisfaction, 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.040 you're not gonna feel comfortable. There's gonna be something weird 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.600 and different around. And if you interact with somebody before 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.679 you've sat your you've satisfied your brains, you need to 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.080 understand what the heck is going on there. Um, then 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.319 you might not interact with them as comfortably as you 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:24.640 would if you were able to sit there and take 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.600 it back. And they did this by having people watch 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.800 other people through like a one way mirror, I think, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.559 and watched them for a few minutes their brains, I 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.000 guess became satisfied or figure it out, you know, what 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.559 the process was. And then after that they interacted with 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.640 the people much more normally than they did before they 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.720 were able to fully satisfy their brains curiosity. Yeah, it's 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.319 like this might be a pretty lame example, but it's 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.640 like if you have a huge ZiT on the end 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.600 of your nose and you walk into a group of 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.440 friends for a meeting, you might say it, just get 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:58.559 over with I got this huge ZiT on my nose, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:03.800 like Fred Savage and Austin Powers the Mole, like acknowledging it. Hey, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.400 I got this huge thing. Instead of being weird about it, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.600 just ahead and take a good gander. Isn't it amazing? 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.080 And now let's just act normal. And then nine times 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.120 out of ten people are like, yeah, great, I just 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.000 put my hand in front of my face and pretend 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.360 that nothing's different. Is the makeup not working? But the 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.160 thing is, it's you know, it's it. You know you 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:28.040 people have zits themselves, fairly well understood and it's transient, 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.560 you know what I mean. So there is definitely looking 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.880 at somebody who is differently abled or um just different 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.120 in any way it can be considered rude, but especially 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.120 if that person has to put up with it again 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.800 and again. But I think there's just not that understanding 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.040 of what is the basis of it, and of course 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:46.880 kids are going to do that, and his parents you 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.720 are probably Johnny on the spot by saying, don't stare 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.920 at that person, that lady without a face. She you know, 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.000 it's not nice. Uh, Whereas the kids just thinking like 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.480 I've never seen someone without a face, right, and the 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.600 parent you I was thinking that same thing, but they're 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.560 just having to do the parental thing and you know, 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.960 like steal a quick glance and then tell the kid 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.559 not to stare because it's been socialized out of them. Yeah, 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.520 it's super interesting to me, but it seems to be 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.240 innate because kids do it and then they have to 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.160 be taught not to do it, right, So I wonder 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.440 almost if it's then in that, in that circumstance, if 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:25.120 it's like a vestigial trait, you know, like it's an 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.720 innate thing that like the kid is responding to the 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:32.199 kids evolutionary history, but it hasn't been socialized to not 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.960 do that yet. So there's like this social layer that's 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:39.520 being put on top of an evolutionary trait. So staring 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.080 seems pretty straightforward, so far right. Actually, it gets way, 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.720 way more complex, and we will dig into that right 0:12:46.760 --> 0:13:10.560 after this. So we're back and we're talking about being 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.160 stared at, which, by the way, I didn't get a 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.600 chance to listen to it, but um, Robert and Julie 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.679 at stuff to blow your mind? Did this did a 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:22.520 staring episode a few years back? Safe to one, I 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.640 would guess, yeah, yeah, Um again, I don't know. I'm 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.720 sure they did, though, now that you mentioned so, um, Chuck, 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.400 we're talking about staring in how you know, maybe the 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:39.400 evolutionary adaptations to it. Um, And there's a further idea 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:44.760 that we've actually evolved. Our eyes have evolved to really 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.720 understand when somebody's looking at us, right. I think it's 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.240 pretty neat the gays detection system. Yeah, they make the 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:54.439 point in here, which article was just from this one 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.840 was from psychology today. Basically, the difference, the main difference 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.280 between humans and lot of animals is with people, you 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.079 can see a lot more whites of the eye than 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.160 you can with most animals. So the dark parts, that is, 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.839 the parts that look at you, Uh, you can really 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.319 tell when those things are moving around, right exactly. You 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.800 can tell when you're being looked at a lot more easily. Yeah. So, like, 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.680 if the dark parts are in the center of the eye, roughly, 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.120 you can assume that you're being looked at. If the 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.240 dark parts are to the right, the person is looking 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.320 to the right. If the dark parts are to the left, 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.680 vice versa. Right, Yep, I'm looking at Nual out of mine. 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.360 I guess you would say peripheral vision exactly. So, and 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.160 I can just I can relax because you're not looking 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:39.920 at me. You're looking at Nual, So I can go 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:44.800 back to knitting or starting fires whatever. Um, But Noel 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.360 needs to be on his best behavior. And that's actually 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.880 one of the two um suggestions for why we're so 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.080 responsive to being looked at. Like, there's there's a couple 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:58.960 of things. So this gaze detection system they've they've determined that, um, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:04.160 if you are looking towards me, chuck, but over my shoulder, 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:06.800 and I can just kind of tell, right, so your 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:08.840 head is looking at me, your eyes are generally I mean, 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:10.960 but you're just like a degree or two off, Like 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:12.800 right now, is that weird? Yeah, right now you're say 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.000 it is kind off putting, but right now you're setting 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.800 off a different kind of neuron in my brain. Then 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.280 you are. Now that you're looking directly at me. Now, 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.800 different neurons are firing, like specific neurons for when someone 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.440 is looking right at you fire, which is exactly like 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.440 we have basically a region of the brain dedicated to that. Yeah, 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.120 and I have to say you and I are like 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.880 staring at each other way more than normal in this episode. 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.760 Oh yeah, interesting, or maybe we're just talking about it 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.040 more than you so I'm not sure. Uh. The other 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.720 cool thing is they you tend in your peripheral vision 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:49.120 to notice more when uh like, instead of someone just 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.320 looking at you straight on with their body in their face, 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.760 if someone is looking from the side and turning their 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.880 head completely uh to the right to look at you, 0:15:58.240 --> 0:15:59.960 that will stand out a lot more in your peripher 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.800 vision than someone just standing staring straight at you. Yeah, 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.160 which is super weird. It really is. Today, when I 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.240 was driving in um there was this woman walking her 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.000 baby in a stroller down the street and I was 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.720 just looking at her kid, and I was driving parallel 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.000 to her, but my head I'm sure was turned toward them. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.480 She wasn't looking anywhere near me, and just all of 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.440 a sudden, she turns her head and just completely like 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:28.880 meets my gaze right like like she saw somehow, probably 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.280 in her peripheral vision, that there was somebody in a 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.000 car looking at her kid and she needed to check 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.680 it out, so she threw the cover over the stroller 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:42.560 real quick. It's like a monster. Uh, yeah, it's it's 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.120 I don't know. I find all this stuff fascinating, Like 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.200 whether or not you can feel when you're being stared 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:52.680 at directly to your back. Let's say, well, that's something different. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.040 So like this, all of the the sum up to this point, Uh, 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.720 we've been talking about stuff that can be explained away 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:04.040 using like your peripheral vision, noticing other people's body language, um, 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.439 looking at where the eyes are. Now we're getting into 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.520 just some weirdness and something called the psychic staring effect 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.720 or scope pastigia, or the feeling that you're being stared 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:20.040 at from behind, even though there's no way using your 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.200 normal senses, you should be able to tell that someone 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.119 is looking at you. Yeah, and this, Uh, there was 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:26.960 a paper. This is from the article of the Feeling 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:31.280 of being stared At. And there's an old paper from 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.640 from Science magazine called the Feeling of being stared At 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:41.520 by Edward uh Kitchener and he said, and this was 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.719 sort of a weird feedback loop, but he said, if 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:45.560 you go to the front of a room and you 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.720 have your back to everyone, you're gonna feel like you're 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.479 being stared at, and then you're gonna get nervous and 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.280 start fidgeting around, which will cause people to stare at you. 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.760 So that doesn't too much for me. He also he 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:03.000 also said, um, it's possible that it's um when you 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.280 think someone staring at you, you start to turn around 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.280 to see them, to catch somebody staring at you, or 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.240 to see who it is, and they'll then look at 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.280 you right. They notice you moving and they start looking 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:17.360 at you. Before you've made it all the way around, 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.680 you were looking at me, and you say, no, jerk, 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:22.840 didn't look at you until you turn around, looked at 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.240 me right, and then it just turned into a fist 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.840 fight every time without fail. So Tischner basically was like, 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.520 it's all illusory, it's it's done. He didn't really write 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.240 necessarily about all of his methods or study size or 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.320 anything like that, but um, he he felt like he 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.359 kind of settled it. Fifteen years later, there was a 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.040 guy who picked it up again. His name was je Coover. 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.200 He wrote another paper called the Feeling of Being Stared At, 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.400 and he tried a little more scientifically to figure out 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.600 what was going on, and he had a pretty cool 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.359 I thought his technique was pretty awesome. Um. He would 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.440 sit there and have a study participant with his back 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.639 to him, and he would roll a dice a die, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.840 and if it came up even, he would not stare 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.119 at them for fifteen seconds. If it came up odd, 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.120 he would stare at them for fifteen seconds. And then 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.240 each time the person needed to write down what they 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.440 thought whether they were being stared at or not. Yeah, 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.159 and it was lined up pretty consistently. Um. But what 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.840 this UH points out, in what a few of the 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.240 other staring studies point out, is if you know you're 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.520 in a staring study, you may be more clued in 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.159 even if you're blindfolded to think like, oh, you know, 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.359 I feel like someone staring because I'm supposed to write 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:43.520 exactly like you're thinking about being stared exactly. So Um. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:48.880 In this je Coover study from UM, he found that 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.200 people guessed at about fifty They were right about fifty 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:54.520 percent at the time, which is even with chance. Right, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.720 So that suggests that you don't really have a any 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.240 kind of signal or scent that you're being stared at. 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:03.800 You're just guessing and you're primeed to being guests and 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:07.280 yeah like um. Follow up studies have shown that if 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.080 people are distracted with another task or if they don't 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.520 think the studies actually about whether or not they're being 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.720 stared at, they almost never guessed that they're being stared at. Um. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:19.760 It only starts to show up in studies where you're 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.040 testing for that sense of being stared at and they're prime. 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.560 But even then they're just guessing at about the same 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:31.280 rate as chance. So Tishner and Coouver and others later 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.720 on over the years have basically suggested that scope pastigia, 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.760 or that feeling you're being stared at, is very widespread. 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.680 Most people believe that they can tell when somebody staring 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.920 at them, but that it's actually an illusion that isn't 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.760 necessarily explained in any of these but it is. It 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.480 is a widespread illusion that humans tend to suffer from 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:55.040 universally well and anecdotally. You might remember the times where 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.280 I feel like someone staring at me and someone is, 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.560 but not remember the times that you feel like someone 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:02.080 staring at you, and you look up and no one's 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.119 staring like you don't catalog that. Well. That was another 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.240 thing they found too, is that there's no no one's 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.159 ever found any any idea that you can tell when 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:15.000 you're not being stared at. It's just it's just being 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:16.879 stared at that we suppose you have a sense for 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:18.760 all right, Well, let's take another break here and we'll 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:32.440 talk about a few more weird staring studies right after this. Hey, 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.800 everybody out there in podcast land, we want to alert 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.439 you to what we're going to call a podcasting event, 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.720 an event like the moon landing, but for podcasting. Basically. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.280 That's right. It's a new podcast from ge Podcast Theater 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:46.879 and Panopally called The Message. It's an eight episode series 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.080 that's pretty much gonna blow your scientific mind. Yep. The 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.040 Message follows the story of Nicki Tomlin, a PhD in 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:56.160 linguistics from the University of Chicago, who follows a team 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.520 of cryptologists at a research think tank called Cipher. These 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:01.879 resar riachers are trying to decode a message that was 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.760 received from outer space seventy years ago. It's gonna be 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:08.760 pretty awesome, man, that's amazing and if you want to subscribe, 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.479 and you should just go to iTunes look it up 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:13.960 or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, we'll be doing that, 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.560 won't we. That's right available now wherever you get podcast 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:33.480 including iTunes, g E, podcast theaters. The message All right, alrighty, 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.800 we're back. And here's a weird staring study. Yeah, they've 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:39.399 done a lot of them. And this is from an 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:41.760 article of the many creepy experiments and involves staring at 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.480 people on I O nine. Uh great website. So this one, 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.160 um the Stairs, a Stimulus to flight and human subjects, 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:53.160 was I thought pretty interesting and kind of a no brainer. Basically, 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.800