[Q] Staring equal to hearing own voice across crowded room?

[paigetheoracle]

If somebody stares at us, do we know it instantly as in the same way we recognize our own name being spoken across a noisy and crowded room, only the latter is friendly usually and the former predator/ prey in tone (dominant/ hostile)?

[CraigD]

This question is the topic, usually known by the unimaginative title ”the sense of being stared at” is perhaps the best known of Rupert Sheldrake’s “Seven Experiments That Could Change the World”.

 

It’s been studied considerably, both by professionals and by many amateur experimenters (including a group I was in, in 1998), so we know with high confidence that, if such an effect exists at all, it is so small as to be of little practical use. Most psychologists and biologists believe the effect doesn’t exist at all.

 

My personal, unsupported position on the subject is heretical both to Sheldrake supporters and skeptics: I believe that, as conducted in most experimental settings (a common one is for a group of volunteer “prey” in a public place such as a public or school library, to mark a paper form divided into 5 minute intervals “felt I was being watched [yes] [no]”, while volunteer “predators” who they do not know stare at the back of their heads at random intervals, marking a paper form divided into the same time intervals “stared at person ___”, then collect and analyze the results) the effect actually does occur (though at about 52% vs. 50% chance, vs. some reported results of 60% or higher), but are not due to Sheldrake’s proposed explanation, “morphic resonance”, but rather because the “prey” notice reactions of people around them who can see the “predators”.

 

In informal settings, this is a common phenomenon – when in face-to-face contact with someone, one can routinely “fake” them into looking over their shoulder by shifting you eyes to look there, as if someone or something were behind them. I think this sort of awareness is more common than most people are aware of, and accounts for the typical “sense of being stared at” experiment results.

[InfiniteNow]

I've read Sheldrake's book, "The Sense of Being Stared At," and I personally find the idea rather lacking... and that's even before he gets into the idea of morphic fields.

 

 

With the "sense of being stared at," much more likely is that we over-remember the positive hits... Those occasions are more "perceptually salient."

 

To make this idea more accessible, it may help to think of it this way...

 

How many times do you turn around and there is nobody staring at you? Pretty often, right? Well, now consider this... How many of those occasions do you actually commit to memory? If you're like most humans, pretty much none of them will be remembered or enter your memory for later recall.

 

However, on those much more rare occasions when you turn around and someone just happens to be looking at you you'll tend to remember it... and for good reason... It feels odd... It seems more "special." A likely reason for this is evolutionary... in our past noticing someone/something staring at us from behind was generally cause to run away, as most things "staring at us" were predators. That's why those events where we notice being watched from behind will cause greater reaction and will be stored for future reference in our memory.

 

I propose that it's not that we "know when someone is staring at us," it's that those are the only occurrences which we actually tend to remember. In sum, we hugely over-represent the positive hits and on nearly every occasion completely ignore the negative ones.

[paigetheoracle]

I've read Sheldrake's book, "The Sense of Being Stared At," and I personally find the idea rather lacking... and that's even before he gets into the idea of morphic fields.

 

 

With the "sense of being stared at," much more likely is that we over-remember the positive hits... Those occasions are more "perceptually salient."

 

To make this idea more accessible, it may help to think of it this way...

 

How many times do you turn around and there is nobody staring at you? Pretty often, right? Well, now consider this... How many of those occasions do you actually commit to memory? If you're like most humans, pretty much none of them will be remembered or enter your memory for later recall.

 

However, on those much more rare occasions when you turn around and someone just happens to be looking at you you'll tend to remember it... and for good reason... It feels odd... It seems more "special." A likely reason for this is evolutionary... in our past noticing someone/something staring at us from behind was generally cause to run away, as most things "staring at us" were predators. That's why those events where we notice being watched from behind will cause greater reaction and will be stored for future reference in our memory.

 

I propose that it's not that we "know when someone is staring at us," it's that those are the only occurrences which we actually tend to remember. In sum, we hugely over-represent the positive hits and on nearly every occasion completely ignore the negative ones.

 

Actually Craig I was thinking more of the case where you catch sight of someone staring at you out of the corner of your eye and have it confirmed by turning to face them.

 

As for Rupert Sheldrake's experiment, I too think it is flawed because it is too loose and open to interpretation/ clues. I suggested to Dr Richard Wiseman a more confined, laboratory setting for the idea, including masking round the face, like these protective cones dogs have to protect injuries or a whole in a piece of board or even a two way mirror but not random staring as per Sheldrake's experiments. For me the subject needs to be in a passive, relaxed state with no stimulation to occupy (distract) their minds and the person doing the staring needs to do it deliberately, intensely and for a fixed period (the passive receiver needs a push button, to respond to any feeling or guessing). Without controls like this it would be like someone trying to hit a nail with a hammer blind folded, in my opinion.

[paigetheoracle]

Another angle that I was thinking of is verbal and visual language (body language, which is visual, being stronger that the emotional content, which is verbal or the meaning of the words, which is intellectual (social co-operation and talk/ individual creativity and vision (separation from the crowd as a necessity to clarify your thoughts)). Dominance is also visual - staring out your opponent, until they back down as noise is the struggle for that position (hissing, spitting, growling, shouting, arguing - animals or people): BBC Wildlife program on Indian Temple Monkeys as quoted elsewhere by me.

[paigetheoracle]

Another thing I've noticed in this regard is the unconscious flinch in someone who doesn't want to make eye contact with you because they are too preoccupied to get caught up in discussion at that point (Like a fish struggling to pull away from a fishing line when it is hooked)

 

Also how if you catch someone's eye, they kind of freeze for a second before moving on.

[lemit]

I too think we are hardwired to see stares.

 

All cats I have ever had have showed this effect to the extent that two round objects set at appropriate proportions in a larger object would elicit an abnormal (albeit not fatal) level of curiosity.

 

The response is probably a defense mechanism. After all, if something is staring at you, there is always a chance in nature that you are being appraised as possibly lunchmeat. It's probably evolutionally good to notice that kind of stare.

 

Just guessing,

 

--lemit

[paigetheoracle]

I too think we are hardwired to see stares.

 

All cats I have ever had have showed this effect to the extent that two round objects set at appropriate proportions in a larger object would elicit an abnormal (albeit not fatal) level of curiosity.

 

The response is probably a defense mechanism. After all, if something is staring at you, there is always a chance in nature that you are being appraised as possibly lunchmeat. It's probably evolutionally good to notice that kind of stare.

 

Just guessing,

 

--lemit

 

My thoughts exactly...Lemit, why are you staring at me that way, with that 'lean and hungry look' (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)? Get back I'm not that fat!