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Given how frequently people can tell when someone is looking at them from behind or at a distance, the book on attention as a material force is anything but clo

Given how frequently people can tell when someone is looking at them from behind or at a distance, the book on attention as a material force is anything but closed.

schoen 8y ago
The linked paper says that the empirical accuracy of this feeling was disproven over 100 years ago: > One of the most common extramission beliefs is that people can “feel” someone else’s gaze as a pressure or heat on the skin. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Titchener (14) and Coover (15) showed that, although people may believe in eye beams, no such beams exist; people cannot actually detect the gaze of another in the absence of specific sensory information. > 14 Titchener EB (1898) The feeling of being stared at. Science 8:895–897. > 15 Coover JE (1913) The feeling of being stared at. Am J Psychol 24:570–575. Have you come across later studies that suggest it does have a statistically verifiable reality? Edit: debate about this topic further down in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18852698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18852698
aasasd 8y ago
So what's the approximate percentage of the times that people can tell, vs the times when they can't or are mistaken?
nugga 8y ago
Ever noticed how especially in groups (or any group/public setting) when attention is diverted away from them people often seem to start shifting their pose or doing something like moving their fingers, hands or legs? I wonder how deliberate those movements and actions are.
jstanley 8y ago
> Given how frequently people can tell when someone is looking at them from behind I'm going to say "exactly the same as random chance".
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  I'm more inclined to believe that our senses are especially on the lookout for attacks from behind, so if we catch subtle cues that someone or something is behind us that we weren't previously aware of (subtle sounds, air disturbances, the diversion of other people's eyes to look at it) we're more likely to turn around to see what it is. Some of the time, the person we sensed behind us is looking at us, but we disproportionately remember those times because it feels more weird and memorable.

Given how frequently people can tell when someone is looking at them from behind or at a distance, the book on attention as a material force is anything but closed.

schoen 8y ago

The linked paper says that the empirical accuracy of this feeling was disproven over 100 years ago: > One of the most common extramission beliefs is that people can “feel” someone else’s gaze as a pressure or heat on the skin. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Titchener (14) and Coover (15) showed that, although people may believe in eye beams, no such beams exist; people cannot actually detect the gaze of another in the absence of specific sensory information. > 14 Titchener EB (1898) The feeling of being stared at. Science 8:895–897. > 15 Coover JE (1913) The feeling of being stared at. Am J Psychol 24:570–575. Have you come across later studies that suggest it does have a statistically verifiable reality? Edit: debate about this topic further down in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18852698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18852698

aasasd 8y ago

So what's the approximate percentage of the times that people can tell, vs the times when they can't or are mistaken?

nugga 8y ago

Ever noticed how especially in groups (or any group/public setting) when attention is diverted away from them people often seem to start shifting their pose or doing something like moving their fingers, hands or legs? I wonder how deliberate those movements and actions are.

jstanley 8y ago

> Given how frequently people can tell when someone is looking at them from behind I'm going to say "exactly the same as random chance".

beaconstudios 8y ago
I'm more inclined to believe that our senses are especially on the lookout for attacks from behind, so if we catch subtle cues that someone or something is behind us that we weren't previously aware of (subtle sounds, air disturbances, the diversion of other people's eyes to look at it) we're more likely to turn around to see what it is. Some of the time, the person we sensed behind us is looking at us, but we disproportionately remember those times because it feels more weird and memorable.