Sensing When People Look At You

[joggerjayne]

What's that sense that we have, which tells us when someone is looking at us?

Doesn't it happen a lot, that you feel the urge to look round, and there's someone looking straight at you?

I was in a coffee shop this morning, looking at a guy outside, across the square, a stranger, and he suddenly looked round, straight at me, as if I'd called him. And I was inside, so he can't have really seen me very clearly.

How does this sense work?

[joggerjayne]

Andy-Hughes ... A* for the amount of effort that went into your answer.

sqad ... smack and naughty step for being an old cynic.

stuey ... Best Answer, for making me smile ... it was such an obvious gag, but no one else had done it ... closely followed by Sipowicz.

[Bazile]

joggerjayne

So that's how you spend your leisure time - mentally undressing blokes in the street ?

[jim360]

It's mainly confirmation bias, in that on occasion you will feel that someone is looking and you and they are, and you go "oh wow!", but there are just as many if not more times when you think someone is looking at you when no-one is.

This is not the same as saying "it doesn't happen" -- rather, there is little evidence to suggest that it's anything other than random chance, plus our usual inability to be any good at sorting out correlation from causation. Well, probably.

[cupid04]

Your not supposed to take your dog in Waitrose, Baldrick.

[naomi24]

stuey, sperlatt! :o)

[Baldric]

Wot, not even one of them?

[joggerjayne]

Hang on, Baz ... I was only looking at the guy !!

:0o

[TWR]

They can do what they like, I don't owe anyone anything.

[stuey]

Thanks, JJ; I'll be seeing you in that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees, the wishing well!

[weecalf]

There were jugglers at parties I went to as a kid ,it was hard to keep up with them .

[weecalf]

Just noticed this should have been in kid getting fined for not going to party ...sorry