Citation

Elman D, Schulte DC, Bukoff A. Environ. Psychol. Nonverbal. Behav. 1977; 2(2): 93-99.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF01145825

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Two field experiments investigated the generality of the stare-escape phenomenon for pedestrians. Experiment 1, conducted at a traffic intersection, failed to replicate a previous finding that being stared at leads to faster walking speed. One hypothesis that could explain this failure is that the relatively short staring times used in Experiment 1 were insufficient for subjects to attribute a threatening meaning to the stare. In Experiment 2, conducted at a library elevator, duration of staring was systematically varied -- either 2 seconds or more than 15 seconds. Consistent with the attribution time hypothesis, subjects increased walking speed after a long stare but decreased it after a short stare. In both experiments a smile coupled with a stare appeared to neutralize the effects of a stare alone.

Language: en