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Feeling Stares: Places, Persons, and Pets
Author(s) -
Staats Sara,
Ross Tyra,
Irmscher Krista,
Rada Kelly
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.2002.32.4.758
Subject(s) - staring , psychology , social psychology , feeling , paranoia , perception , situational ethics , dominance (genetics) , aggression , mood , attribution , social perception , communication , biochemistry , chemistry , neuroscience , psychotherapist , gene
The belief that one can feel others staring without actually seeing them look is a common social phenomenon. From a comparative viewpoint, staring is associated with dominance behavior or aggression. In humans, staring is often viewed as a negative behavior. Thus, being the object of a stare is potentially dangerous. We predicted that persons in vulnerable circumstances (e.g., an unfamiliar situation) or with strangers rather than with friends would be sensitized to detect signals or stimuli associated with danger. We also hypothesized that persons high in self‐consciousness or who were in a negative mood would have an increased bias toward detecting stares. The situational‐context hypotheses received higher support than did the dispositional hypotheses. Beliefs concerning animals and stare perception were explored.