WEBVTT - Selects: What's the Deal With Staring? 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.199 Hey, everybody, chuck here. You ever been in a public 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:07.080 place and you notice somebody's staring at you? Or have 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:09.639 you ever been in a public place and stared at somebody? 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:12.319 People say it's rude. You're supposed to tell your kids 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.080 don't stare. That's rude. But what's the deal with staring? 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:20.959 Turns out we have a podcast episode from November called 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.919 What's the deal with Staring? We're gonna answer that for 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:29.800 you right now. Please enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you should Know, 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:38.920 a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.040 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.919 and guest producer Role is actually staying in here. I 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.240 believe he's staring at us as funny as we speak. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.320 It's making my cheek blush just the one though, Yeah, 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.320 which is weird to tease? Is what that is? Anything? 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:04.840 I'm a big tease? Uh spoiler alert? Okay, now that 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.759 was it? That your cheek is hot? It's a post 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.600 spoiler alert post. I don't know if those work count. 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:12.880 I think you can set the internet off into a 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:14.959 frenzy if you do it the wrong way. Oh yes, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.360 we've done that before. Oh, Yeah, that's right, say spoiler 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.560 alert beforehand. Apparently, Yeah, I thought you just spoiled it, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.240 and then said spoiler alert as a tag. It's not 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.440 how it works, Uh chuck. Yes, have you ever been 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:34.080 to the grocery store? Uh? Yeah, I was there yesterday. 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.200 Were you did you go down this? Do you buy cereal? Now? 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.160 I don't really buy cereal much either. I I um cereal, 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:43.959 you know, I'm just glad it's still around, but I 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.560 just don't buy it myself. Every once while go down 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.000 the cereal, it's just almost to like visit old friends. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:54.480 Like there's the Count Chocola, there's Fred Flintstone, or what 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.840 the heck happened to Lucky the Leopard con He doesn't 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:58.840 look anything like you did when we were kids, you know, 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.480 look at Tony Tiger. Yes, while while I'm walking down 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.560 the cereal, I noticed like they don't like hold my 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:10.120 my gaze like they used to. Actually, because you're not seven. No. Actually, 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.320 there's this study that found and I think to the 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.760 last couple of years at Cornell University, they have like 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.040 a whole food psychology program, you know, I love that stuff. Um, 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.480 And they did a study of like I think sixty 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.359 five different cereals and found that, um, the average gaze 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.480 downward gaze is about a nine point six degree gays 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.960 right of just your normal human walking in the serial. 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.120 So like if you were looking at Tony the Tiger 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.959 and you were you were me in our normal adult height, 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.720 he wouldn't be locking eyes with us, But if we 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.600 were little kids, he'd be looking right into our eyes. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.119 To Can Sam, To Can Sam, Lucky, Captain Crunch, which 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.960 we talked about, Yeah, the Honey Combs Maniac, Yeah, the 0:02:56.040 --> 0:03:00.639 Goalen Fiber Stick. Sure, Um, all of those guy they 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.079 look into little kid's eyes. And the whole reason why 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.200 is because, um, it builds brand trust and brand loyalty 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.040 among um cereal boxes where the character is looking right 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.800 into your kid's eyes on the cereal aisle, there's like 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:19.200 brand loyalty compared to like among boxes that don't have 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.560 little characters looking into your kid's eyes. And it all 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.680 just kind of goes to show you, like the stare 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:33.200 even being stared at by a lifeless cardboard cartoon character 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.720 is that powerful that it can It can make you say, 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.600 I want to eat what's inside of you? You know, 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.880 so the gays it's powerful or like the old days 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.000 when I was single and I would go into a 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.280 bar and just like go right up beside a lady 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.880 and just stare at her face until she looked at me. 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.080 Make your eyes as wide as you possibly could. They 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.880 love that stuff. Very powerful. It shows what a pain 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.800 there you are. A creep, is what that would be? Sure? Yeah, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:05.840 and I mean that's a that's a really great point. 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.880 Like if it's a leprechn on a cereal box, you're 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.120 not threatened or intimidated by it, but there's still some 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.360 sort of power to its gaze. Right, if you're another 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.159 human being that is so powerful it has to be 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.720 wielded very delicately, because people don't like to be stared at, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.440 as as this this House to Works article points out, 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.720 it's simply rude to stare. Yeah, it can be. I mean, 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.719 depending on what culture you live in, it can be 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:37.600 everything from intimidation tactic to a to an affront to 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.600 like something that's very aggressive. Um yeah, it means a 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:43.360 lot of things around the world. But I didn't find 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.480 a lot of cultures where it was super nice. No, 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.880 the closest thing I can find was Argentina being called out. 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.760 Um as it being socially acceptable for men to stare 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:59.279 at women. That doesn't mean that it's welcomed, right, it's 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.200 not welcomed necessarily or wanted, but it's not like what 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.080 are you doing kind of thing. But I couldn't find 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.039 any culture around the world we're just outright staring is 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.760 just normal and fine. It seems to be like universally 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.440 it makes people uncomfortable. It seems like, yeah, well this article, uh, 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.600 we're gonna draw from a few but one from our 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.400 own website. Why is it rude to stare? Which it 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.240 never really answers Actually no, it doesn't. Just sort of 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.839 give some reasons dance around it. But um, I did 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.080 think they made a good point whoever wrote this early 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:36.559 on in the article, that humans are constantly categorizing things 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:41.960 when we look around at anything, uh, from inanimate objects, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.640 you know, that desk looks comfortable, or that chair looks nice, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:52.400 or that car is cool, or that person is h white, Uh, 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.760 that person is a woman, that person is attractive, that 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.680 person isn't. Like We're always scanning and dropping things into 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.320 different mental boxes. And uh so they make a pretty 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.719 good point. I think whenever something is just slightly off, um, 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:13.240 like that person has one leg it just the brain 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.680 has an instinct to to stay stay on that gay 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.719 is a little longer because it just disrupts the normal, 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:22.720 like that's a thing, that's the thing, that's a thing, 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:24.279 and that's a difference. So let me look at that 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.520 for a minute, right, And the the whole idea behind 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.880 us walking around constantly scanning our environment is this idea 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.880 that we've evolved to at first, I guess probably hunt 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.560 for predators. Remember in like the gun control episode, we 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.840 talked about how humans can recognize a gun in the 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.599 environment as readily as recognizing snakes or spiders. So we're 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.039 training to to pluck stuff out of our environment that 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.240 may or may not be a threat. Yeah, as we've 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:55.960 kind of moved away from the possibility of, um, you know, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.360 a bear eating you. Typically it still happens in free quently, 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.440 but for the most part, we're not threatened by bears. Right. Um, 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.719 we've we've that that same ability has kind of moved 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.880 into this social realm where that whole in group out 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.400 group categorization that we've talked about two really kind of 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.920 comes up. And so we're walking around saying you're okay, 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.600 you're all right, you maybe a threat. So I'm gonna 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.240 move over here on the other side of the street. 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.960 I don't necessarily recognize you, but we can do all 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.320 this like pretty quickly. Right. But it's like you were saying, 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:33.080 if you see somebody with missing a face, for example, 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.200 is a good is a good one? Um? And I 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.920 read this Wired article that sited a woman who basically 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.239 was like she her husband shot her in the face, 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.960 and she walked around before a face transplant, like missing 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.840 a significant section in the middle of her face, and 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.240 she just was stared at all the time. She said 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.120 she had to get used to it. Um. This article 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:56.360 points out that all you're doing necessarily is taking in 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.800 more information than you're used to, and we we do 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.560 that by staring. It's a result of saying, there's more 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.640 info than I can just get through with a quick plants. 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.200 I need to look at you a little while longer, right. Uh. 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:12.840 And then there was a study at usc AS in 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.240 southern California. This one makes a lot of sense to 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.640 me because I think what you're doing is you're satisfying 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:24.600 a curiosity like, Um, I guess Oscar's historious is a 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.720 weird example. Now that he's gone through that thing. But 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.200 let's say pre that, uh, pre that incident, you would 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.360 see someone like Oscar Oscar Pistorius and say, wow, I 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.360 want to see how this guy runs without legs. So 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.280 I'm gonna look at him put on those blades and 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.480 and run and of course he's a you know, it's 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:51.360 a spectator sport anyway, But I mean it happened any day, like, uh, 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.240 someone who's handicapped, Like, I wonder how they drive a 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.319 car with no legs, So it's very interesting. So I'm 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:00.400 gonna look at that and watch the get in the 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.280 car and have a specially outfitted car with hand operations. 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.160 So it's it's it's weird because it's in that case. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.000 I don't think it's rude, but you're walking a fine line, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.760 but it is still very rude. Another UM non murderous example, 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.720 like the second one you gave is um uh. There 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.760 was in this study at USC they used um women 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:26.160 with a novel biological effectors, meaning in this case that 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.400 their arms hadn't fully developed, but they were performing functions 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.800 that people would normally use their hands for with their 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.720 residual limbs. Right, So someone might be like, wow, how 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.120 is she painting exactly cooking her dinner exactly. But at 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.240 the same time, you're right, you're walking that fine line, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.480 so you're staring, but maybe you look away, but then 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.960 you look back and you kind of have to take 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.000 it in in pieces, because we are in this weird 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.559 position where we want to take in but we're also 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.960 socialized to not stare as well, it's rude. Well. What 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.000 they determined in the study, though, which sort of backs 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.480 up the idea that it is satisfying the curiosity, is 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.720 they looked at the brains of people like staring at uh, 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.920 let's say the lady without the formed limbs, and after 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.560 they looked for a little while, the brain lit up 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.559 at first like oh my gosh, what am I seeing? 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.240 This is super interesting, and then the brain normalized. I 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.680 was like, oh, okay, well that's how she cooks her dinner. 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.679 That's really neat exactly, and then they were able to 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.440 interact normally after that point. So it's almost like, as 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:33.880 long as your brain hasn't gotten enough information to its satisfaction, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.960 you're not gonna feel comfortable. There's gonna be something weird 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.480 and different around. And if you interact with somebody before 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.599 you've sat your you've satisfied your brains and need to 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.960 understand what the heck is going on there. Um, then 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.199 you might not interact with him as comfortably as you 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.520 would if you were able to sit there and take 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.480 it back. And they did this by having people watch 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.679 other people through like a one way mirror I think, 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.480 and watched them for a few minutes the brains, I 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.880 guess became satisfied or figure it out, you know what 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.440 the process was. And then after that they interacted with 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.480 the people much more normally than they did before they 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.800 were able to fully satisfy their brains curiosity. Yeah, it's like, 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.320 this might be a pretty lame example, but it's like 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.640 if you have a huge ZiT on the end of 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.080 your nose and you walk into a group of friends 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.679 for a meeting, you might say, just get over with 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.199 I got this huge ZiT on my nose, like Fred 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.680 Savage and Austin Powers the Mole, like acknowledging it, Hey, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.280 I got this huge thing. Instead of being weird about it, 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.480 just go ahead and take a good gander. Isn't it amazing? 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:37.960 And now let's just act normal. And then nine times 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.000 out of ten people are like, yeah, great, I just 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:41.839 put my hand in front of my face and pretend 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:46.040 that nothing's different. Is the makeup not working right? But 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.880 the thing is, it's you know, a ZiT. You know, 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.920 you people have zits themselves, fairly well understood and it's transient, 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.439 you know what I mean. So there is definitely looking 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.760 at somebody who is differently abled or um, just different 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.160 in any way. It can be considered rude, especially if 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.480 that person has to put up with it again and again. 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.319 But I think there's just not that understanding of what 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.360 is the basis of it. And of course kids are 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.240 going to do that, and his parents you are probably 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.000 a Johnny on the spot by saying, don't stare at 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.800 that person, that lady without a face, she you know, 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.880 it's not nice. Uh, Whereas the kids just thinking like 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.400 I've never seen someone without a face, right, and the 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.200 parent you know, I was thinking that same thing, but 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:32.439 they're just having to do the parental thing and you know, 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.920 like steal a quick glance and then tell the kid 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.480 not to stare because it's been socialized out of them. Yeah, 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.440 it's super interesting to me, but it seems to be 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.120 innate because kids do it and then they have to 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.680 be taught not to do it, right, Yeah, So I 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.199 wonder almost if it's then in that in that circumstance, 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.720 if it's like a vestigial trait. Uh, you know, like 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.040 it's an innate thing that, like the kid is responding 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:58.600 to the kids evolutionary history, but it hasn't been socialized 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.079 to not do that yet. So there's like this social 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.040 layer that's being put on top of an evolutionary trait. 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.440 So staring seems pretty straightforward so far, right. Actually it 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.200 gets way way more complex and we will dig into 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:36.800 that right after this. So we're back and we're talking 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:38.840 about being stared at, which, by the way, I didn't 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:40.880 get a chance to listen to it, but um, Robert 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.920 and Julie at stuff to blow your mind, did this 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:50.920 did a staring episode a few years back? I would 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.760 guess yeah, yeah, Um again, I don't know. I'm sure 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.600 they did, though, now that you mentioned so, um, Chuck, 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.120 we're talking about staring, and you know, maybe the evolutionary 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:07.080 adaptations to it. Um, And there's a further idea that 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:13.400 we've actually evolved, our eyes have evolved to really understand 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.920 when somebody's looking at us. Right, I think it's pretty 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.360 neat the gays detection system. Yeah, they make the point 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.480 in here which article is just from this one was 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:26.120 from Psychology Today. Basically, the difference, the main difference between 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.160 humans and a lot of animals is with people, you 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.960 can see a lot more whites of the eye than 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:36.040 you can with most animals. So the dark parts, that is, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.720 the parts that look at you, Uh, you can really 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.520 tell when those things are moving around. You can tell 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.560 when you're being looked at a lot more easily. Yeah. So, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.320 like if the dark parts are in the center of 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.240 the eye, roughly, you can assume that you're being looked at. 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.760 If the dark parts are to the right, the person 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:54.680 is looking at the right. If the dark parts are 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.360 to the left, vice versa. Right, I'm looking at Knoll 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.920 out of my I guess you would say peripheral, but 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.520 exactly so. And I can just I can relax because 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.360 you're not looking at me. You're looking at Noel, So 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:11.200 I can go back to knitting or starting fires whatever. Um. 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.680 But Noel needs to be on his best behavior. And 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.160 that's actually one of the two um suggestions for why 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.600 we're so responsive to being looked at. Like there's there's 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.120 a couple of things, so this gaze detection system. They've 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:28.840 they've determined that, um, if you are looking towards me, chuck, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.320 but over my shoulder, and I can just kind of tell. Right, 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.000 so your head is looking at me, your eyes are 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.040 generally I mean, but you're just like a degree or 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.360 two off, like right now, is that weird? Yeah, right now, 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.240 you're say it is kind of off putting. But right 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.480 now you're setting off a different kind of neuron in 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.640 my brain than you are now that you're looking directly 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.080 at me. Now, different neurons are firing, Like specific neurons 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.120 for when someone is looking right at you fire, which 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.720 is exactly like we have basically a region of the 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.400 brain dedicated to that. And I have to say, you 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.800 and I are like staring at each other way more 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.600 than normal in this episode. Oh yeah, interesting, or maybe 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:06.520 we're just talking about it more than you so I'm 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.280 not sure. Uh. The other cool thing is they you 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.600 tend in your peripheral vision to notice more when uh like, 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.200 instead of someone just looking at you straight on with 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.440 her body in their face, if someone is looking from 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.760 the side and turning their head completely uh to the 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:25.880 right to look at you, that will stand out a 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.240 lot more in your peripheral vision than someone just standing 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:30.920 staring straight at you. Yeah, which is super weird. It 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.560 really is. Today, when I was driving in Um, there 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.520 was this woman walking her baby and a stroller down 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:38.800 the street, and I was just looking at her kid, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.600 and I was driving parallel to her, but my head 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.480 I'm sure was turned toward them. She wasn't looking anywhere 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.680 near me. Just all of a sudden, she turns her 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.120 head and just completely like meets my gaze right like 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:57.200 like she saw somehow, probably in her peripheral vision, that 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.440 there was somebody in a car looking at her kid, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.880 and she needed to check it out, so she threw 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:09.040 the cover over the stroller real quickly. It's like, come on, uh, yeah, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.399 it's it's I don't know. I find all this stuff fascinating, 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.760 Like whether or not you can feel when you're being 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.840 stared at directly to your back. Let's say, well that's 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.520 something different. So like this all of sum up to 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.679 this point, uh, we've been talking about stuff that can 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.440 be explained away using like your peripheral vision, noticing other 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:32.560 people's body language, um, looking at where the eyes are. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.800 Now we're getting into just some weirdness and something called 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.639 the psychic staring effect or scope astigia, or the feeling 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.000 that you're being stared at from behind, even though there's 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.280 no way using your normal senses, you should be able 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.760 to tell that someone is looking at you. Yeah, and this, uh, 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.439 there was a paper This is from the article of 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.920 the Feeling of being stared at And there's an old 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.720 paper from um from Science magazine called the Feeling of 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:06.720 being Stared At by Edward uh Titchener. And he said, 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:09.800 and this was sort of a weird feedback loop, but 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.160 he said, you go to the front of a room 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.240 and you have your back to everyone, you're gonna feel 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.800 like you're being stared at, and then you're gonna get 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.520 nervous and start fidgeting around, which will cause people to 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.639 stare at you. So that doesn't too much for me. 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.840 He also he also said, um, it's possible that it's 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:32.320 um when you think someone staring at you, you start 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:36.080 to turn around to see them, to catch somebody staring 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.520 at you or to see who it is, and they'll 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.399 then look at you. Right they notice you moving and 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:43.560 they start looking at you. Before you've made it all 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.639 the way around, you were looking at me, and you 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.359 say no, jerk, didn't look at you until you turn around, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.760 looked at me right, and then it just turned into 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.320 a fist fight every time without fail. So Titchener basically 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.920 was like, it's all illusory, it's it's done. He didn't 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.720 really write necessary early about all of his methods or 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.520 study size or anything like that, but um, he he 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.640 felt like he kind of settled it. Fifteen years later 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:10.760 there was a guy who picked it up again. His 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.760 name was Je Couver. He wrote another paper called The 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.720 Feeling of Being Stared At and he tried a little 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:20.160 more scientifically to figure out what was going on, and 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.800 he had a pretty cool I thought his technique was 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.720 pretty awesome. It was okay. Um. He would sit there 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.199 and have a study participant with his back to him, 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.320 and he would roll a dice a die, and if 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.160 it came up even, he would not stare at them 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.760 for fifteen seconds. If it came up odd, he would 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.520 stare at them for fifteen seconds. And then each time 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.480 the person needed to write down what they thought whether 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.520 they were being stared at or not. Yeah, and it 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.360 was it lined up pretty consistently. Um, But what this 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:53.920 uh points out and what a few of the other 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.320 staring studies point out is if you know you're in 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:00.320 a staring study, you may be more clued in even 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.280 if you're blindfolded to think like, oh, you know, I 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.720 feel like someone staring because I'm supposed to write exactly 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:10.800 like you're thinking about being stared exactly. So UM. In 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:16.320 this Je Couver study from UM, he found that people 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.400 guessed at about fifty They were right about fifty percent 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.920 at the time, which is even with chance. Right. So 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.880 that suggests that you don't really have at any kind 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.720 of signal or sense that you're being stared at. You're 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:30.720 just guessing, and you're primed to be in guests and 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.160 yeah like UM. Follow up studies have shown that if 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.960 people are distracted with another task or if they don't 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.400 think the studies actually about whether or not they're being 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.600 stared at, they almost never guessed that they're being stared at. UM. 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:46.640 It only starts to show up in studies where you're 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.919 testing for that sense of being stared at and they're prime. 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.480 But even then they're just guessing at about the same 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:58.160 rate as chance. So Tishner and Couver and others later 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.600 on over the years have basically suggested that scope astigia, 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.720 or that feeling you're being stared at, is very widespread. 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.560 Most people believe that they can tell when somebody's staring 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.280 at them, but that it's actually an illusion, right. That 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.040 isn't necessarily explained in any of these but it is. 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:17.159 It is a widespread illusion that humans tend to suffer 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.560 from universally, well and anecdotally. You might remember the times 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.119 where I feel like someone staring at me and someone is, 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.440 but not remember the times that you feel like someone 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:28.879 staring at you and you look up and no one 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.000 staring like you don't catalog that. Well, that was another 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.120 thing they found too, is that there's no no one's 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.040 ever found any any idea that you can tell when 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.880 you're not being stared at. It's just it's just being 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:43.800 stared at that we suppose you have a sense for. 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:45.639 All right, well, let's take another break here and we'll 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.280 talk about a few more weird staring studies right after this. 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:16.760 All right, alrighty, we're back, and here's a weird staring study. Yeah, 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:18.399 they've done a lot of them, and this is from 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.240 an article the Many Creepy Experiments and involves staring at people. 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.800 Uh great website So this one, UM the Stairs a 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.840 Stimulus to flight and human subjects, was I thought pretty 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.720 interesting and kind of a no brainer. Basically, they would 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.600 have someone stand on a corner and then when people 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.280 would pull up in their car at the light of 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:40.639 the stop sign, they would just stare at them in 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:43.639 their car, and then they would time how long it 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:45.439 took them to get the heck out of there when 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:49.000 the light turned green. And of course, naturally they don't 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:54.119 even release the results. Imagine it was about the people 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:56.000 sped out of there when the light turned green. Yeah, 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.879