On the Nature of Creepiness

I tend to agree, it's a subconscious risk assessment function. But because it's subconscious it is dangerous, it can be inaccurate and target people who are not dangerous, just weird or odd.

It would be interesting to know if it's really just women more inclined to feel creeped out, or if you could find other subgroups (like vulnerable men) who had that same risk-adverse response. But I would not be surprised if it was attached particularly to women, risk adverse behaviour is pretty common in female species because procreation make them slower and more vulnerable.

If that's a challenge to feminist blank-slatism it's not the first one.

Thanks for the links to the study and podcast ScrimshawTheSecond and ArnoldWhatshisknickers. Really fascinating stuff. I've started listening to the podcast now.

Am bookmarking that podcast/video, Arnold, thanks. Looks fascinating.

I had a read of this study yesterday and then by coincidence MrWhatshisknickers was watching a Joe Rogan podcast featuring neuroscientist Joseph Ledoux who was discussing the differences between our physiological responses to danger, controlled by the amygdala region of our brain, and our conscious 'feeling' of fear, controlled by the frontal cortex.

I won't bore you with the details but found it interesting in terms of the nature/nurture debate.

In the case of creepiness I suspect there is a large element of nurture, of that conscious experience of fear. As adults we can try to hide our fear of or distaste for creepy individuals but children are very quick to pick up on our anxiety and thus 'learn' which behaviours indicate danger. As we go through puberty girls get lots of experience of creepiness (this is not a good thing but we all go through it) so by the time we reach full adulthood we generally have a well tuned 'creepy weirdo-ometer'.

Creepiness is one of those things you cannot quite explain but 'instinctively' know when you see it. Except I suspect it isn't really instinct but experience that triggers our spidey-senses. For those who are drivers I would liken it to those times when you're driving along and you see another car and just know it is going to do something stupid, and lo, half a mile up the road they suddenly swing across three lanes without indicating. You can never quite put your finger on what it was that made you think they were an idiot, something about the road positioning? The way they brake to early? Drive too close? You struggle to say why but after driving for years you develop that 'instinct'. I suspect an instinct for creepiness is a similar process.

I'll stop rambling now.

Women and girls must learn to recognise "off" behaviour or features, because we have a hell of a lot more to lose if we don't?

Women can pick up on the facial traits common to people with 'dark triad' traits (even when drunk, says the study): www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886917306852

I saw a post here that made my blood run cold, something along the lines of “you can’t just refuse to get in a car with someone just because there are bad people in the world”

My creepometer went off the scale.

“Your boundaries offend me” = C R E E P Y.

Intrigued as to what WBH is

Trust me, you're better off not knowing

She was lovely, Lang - even had me share her taxi, so I didn't have to worry about anyone being creepy!

Very interesting, thank you!

Intrigued as to what WBH is

It seems to me it is an evolved adaptive response.
Those that don't pay attention are likely to be exposed to danger.
Like when you're sitting in the garden and a small bird lands close by, the temptation to pick it up and hold it, is strong.

Most birds show the correct survival response and flee.

Rightly so.

Oh good grief, it's so hard. Of course we should be able to flag up and share concerns. (Except when it's actionable defamation. Then we have to whisper it in code and hope we don't get spotted.) 🤔

We call it instinct or gut feeling but it is really risk assessment so rapid that it is practically subconscious. If you study it and practice it you can learn how to trace the thought process back and identify each of the bits of information that went into the conclusion that this person is not safe to be around.

Xenobio I would love to see studies on whether they are. Both in my school and in DDs, there have been guidance teachers who were widely thought 'creepy' by the kids. Even if they are not any more likely to be 'up to anything' than anyone else, it does seem a bit odd for the schools to employ them in these roles, as the kids are hardly likely to want to discuss their problems with someone they see as creepy. I've often wondered if the school knows the kids think they're creepy? Should they ask?

The feelings of eeriness and strangeness evoked by very human-like robots has been named the 'uncanny valley' - the 'valley' part because the measure of people's affinity for the device dips as they become more human yet clearly aren't. An obvious robot appearance is more likeable than a pretend human. I'd guess this is similar: people who are deceptive and hiding their true motivations also come across as creepy because we sense their friendliness is fake.

Studies like this are a powerful example of feminist issues. ALL this time, ALL these years, and studies like this are only just happening.

It is both fascinating and enraging that something affecting women on a daily basis isn’t well researched.

Id be interested in a follow up as to what percentage of creepy people actually are a Risk. I’ve had unwitting dealings with 2 men now doing serious jail time for some pretty sickening sex offences and neither trigged my radar. In fact they were thoroughly decent and personable and i can see how they got close to their intended victims. And on the flip side I’ve had bad feelings about peop,e who did indeed turn out to be bad news.

I'd be surprised if our instinctive alerting systems didn't give false positives. Better safe than sorry. We jump at the thing we see out of the corner of our eye and then refine that reaction according to whether our more developed judgement says adder or slow worm, IYSWIM.

Lang's lofty reputation on MN is built on a solid(ish) foundation on WBH.

Freda, do you think people like Boo come across as creepy? I feel I can tell the difference between non typical and creepy. Of course, I'll never know for sure.

I don't know why @LangCleg has such a lofty reputation on here seeing as she just nicks all my thoughts and ideas from Another Place & regurgitates them as if they were her own. Recursively.

I think we should be cautious of labelling people creepy because they are different in an odd way socially. They can end up being victimised - think of Boo Radley in ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. Lots of ‘creepy’ people are harmless, although I agree, sometimes our tingly senses are correct.

This reminds me of the book The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker - he talks about our instincts and several cases of people who found someone creepy who later turned out to be dangerous etc.

Not a study as such, more lots of anecdotes, but his career has been built on assessing risk and enabling others to trust their gut instincts because he believes we have evolved to sense danger even we don’t consciously realise.