The feeling of being observed: myth or scientific reality?

The feeling of being observed: myth or scientific reality?

There are moments in life when you suddenly feel observed. Perhaps you have already experienced this, the scary feeling that makes you turn around and check the surroundings. In fact, between 68 % and 94 % of people report such an experience. The question is: can people really feel when someone looks at them?

scientists have been dealing with this phenomenon for more than a century. The psychology professor Edward Titchener from Cornell University was one of the first to try to explore the reasons for this feeling in 1898. In his studies, he found that many of his students were convinced that they could feel them if someone stared at them from behind. But the confirmation of this conviction has been out of this time.

science behind the phenomenon

The evidence of the ability to "feel" someone who looks at you is poor. A review of studies from 1912 to 1913 showed that the experimental participants did not cut better in it to recognize whether they were stared at than by chance. It turned out that the accuracy of the assumptions did not differ significantly from accident. This knowledge underpinned Titchener's claim that the belief in the ability to be recognized is not empirically not well -founded.

1959 another researcher reported on a study in which he tried to guess if he was observed, and he achieved a hit rate of 59.55 %. This number was described as promising, but such isolated results are often contradicted by other studies. The debate about the phenomenon remains controversial in the scientific community. Experts take a critical look at the methodology of these studies and emphasize that many of them suffered from a lack of control mechanisms.

a psychological puzzle

One of the reasons why people believe in the ability when they are observed could also be in psychological effects. For example, it could be that if you have the feeling of being observed, and then turning around, you often make eye contact with another person who may also watch too. In this situation there is a confirmation of the original feeling: "Ah, I knew it, I was actually observed." This is called confirmation errors.

The neuroscientist Harriet Dempsey-Jones explains that there may be unconscious prejudices that result from the first interactions with a test manager. As a result, the research results are influenced by such distortions. Even if many people are convinced of their experiences, the scientific evidence of this alleged "psychological star effect" is rather weak.

summarized can be said that there are still many questions when it comes to whether we can really feel when someone stares at us. Most experts come to the judgment that there is no sufficient evidence -based evidence to confirm this ability. Ultimately, it could be that we are only a little paranoid every now and then.

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