General Question

rebbel's avatar

Can one person see where another person is looking to?

Asked by rebbel (35549points) July 27th, 2011

Every now and then I come across a person I know that I don’t want to make eye contact with (at that specific moment).
So I stare in front of me, or I look at something which is located at another direction than where said person is at.
First, those stares feel unnatural, which sounds obvious because I am doing something of what I am not proud and feel a bit guilty.
But my question is this: Is one able to see/calculate the angle of another person’s stare/line of sight?
And can one see the difference between a relaxed and a forced stare from another person?

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12 Answers

Response moderated
El_Cadejo's avatar

I would say it depends on the person. Some people are extremely obvious when they do this, others arent. I do it from time to time but I try and make it seem like something off in the other direction has caught my attention. Its a lot more obvious when the person just stares at the ground or something rather abruptly.

linguaphile's avatar

Some people are much more perceptive and much more able to measure the depth/angle of others eyes. I’ve noticed it when waving at people- some people will be a good 10 feet off my angle of sight and will think I’m waving at them, or I’ll point at something while looking and the other person will indicate something 5 feet away from where I’m pointing. While others are sharp-eyed and can calculate within inches what you’re looking at.
The same goes for expressions—some people are capable of reading guilt, nervousness, and avoidance to the smallest degree, while others won’t see or read any change in facial expressions.

marinelife's avatar

Probably not.

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
Zaku's avatar

Yes, it’s possible to do that. Only some people pay attention to such things and develop skills at reading subtle body language. Generally it seems to me that most women do develop such skills and even pay more attention to them than they do to what people are saying, while it seems to me most men don’t develop such skills (and they pay attention to different things, such as whether someone else is being intimidating or in their space).

wundayatta's avatar

Of course you can. In fact, I’m nearly positive you already do it. It’s instinctive. We have an inbred ability to read another person’s gaze. Just as we can read their bodies without even knowing how we do it or even that we do it.

Hibernate's avatar

I don’t think so. For instance when you do not what to look into someone eyes you can do this trick. There’s a triangle made by his eyes and the middle of his forehead. If you look into that triangle center you are looking in between the eyes but a bit above the line made by the eyes. The other person can’t tell if you are looking into his eyes or not. :)

Londongirl's avatar

I tend to stare at direction away from eye contacts when chatting with someone. With someone I like I don’t do eye contact at all as I’m too shy to look at them so I actually avoid eye contact…

chewhorse's avatar

If your self-conscious about doing this when (you feel) someone staring at you.. Carry a book with you and hide within it, no one will be able to tell if your faking then.

longtresses's avatar

Agree with Zaku.

… side story.. there is this story I read. A mother was sitting inside a jeep with her son and husband. Suddenly her body leaped across the seats; she shut the window where her son was sitting. Turned out there was a snake next to her son’s window, and her body was faster than her conscious thinking. She didn’t even see the snake before she shut that window.

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