Caught Spying

Ever drive on the highway and get passed by another car and you just knew they were looking at you? A quick glance to the left or right and your suspicions were confirmed as you catch the other driver or passenger quickly looking away. What's up with that? Everyday I am passed by dozens of cars to and from work, yet somehow I just know I'm being looked at.

And the reverse? Sometimes I'm just about to pass a car and for whatever reason I want to see who is driving the car. And I get caught every damn time. I quickly turn away so as not to grant confirmation to their suspicion that I'm a nosy driver or passenger. But we both know that I am busted.

We are traveling 60, 70, 80 miles per hour and we can just feel peering eyes looking in from five or ten feet away. Is this some sort of justified paranoia? Is it a remnant of primitive instincts that are part of our DNA? Are left over fight or flight triggers instantly enacted? Is it a spidey sense thing going on?

Back in February 2011 Psychology Today  published an article called “How You Know Eyes are Watching You.” It says there is a “gaze detection” system that is sensitive when someone is looking directly at you. “Eye contact is so primal that it's meaning extends across animal species.” The article states that peripheral vision can somehow figure out that another is looking right at us. It goes on to discuss the color of eyes and size of pupil and iris. This is helpful but fails to address my underlying issue here. We can totally feel when those we don't even see are staring at us.

Harriet Dempsey-Jones (no relation) talks on this issue (sort of) over at theconversation.com. She explains that we've all had the feeling of being watched, even by those “completely outside our field of vision.” She scoffs at the idea of a “sixth sense” and mentions a couple of things brought up in the Psychology Today article regarding the uniqueness of the human eye.

Dempsey-Jones discusses an evolved ability to detect gaze, visual cues, and simply overestimating how often you are actually gazed at. She cites a study that found that “Up to 94% of people report that they have experienced the feeling of eyes upon them” and then turned around and BINGO! They're right!

But it is here where a road block may have been erected. Scientists argue the validity of this study cannot be relied upon. There are factors that cannot be explained. That methods used are not sound. Dammit science. I want answers! Not questions!

Finally (firstly?), a psychologist named Edward Titchener explored this phenomena more than 100 years ago. This was referred to a the Psychic Staring Effect. He found that over 2/3's of his students could feel when stared at. He explained it away with this explanation: You feel like you are being looked at. You start twitching and acting nervous. You draw attention. You turn around and bam! People are staring at you!

Damn it!

This explains nothing about the car staring phenomena! There is a term for this called scopaesthesia. Surely I cannot be the only one who has wondered about this! I sat down with my phone, a paper and a pen hoping to find affirmation. But there is nothing. I know others experience this. But not enough to delve into it further? I am disappointed. And as I finish this up I sense somebody at work looking at me. Let's take a look... no one. But there are cameras everywhere. Maybe I am being watched.

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Me sometime during the summer of probably 1993.  Somebody was watching me.

If I were to pick a song to represent this post it would be...