Impromptu Socialogical Testing
I've been making a real effort to be more observant of the way people react to me. Here are the fascinating things that I've found over the last few weeks:
Eye Contact
Men feel threatened by strong eye contact. They often look down and away quickly and shuffle their feet or clear their throats. In a bar or club (where men are struggling to create and maintain social dominance), this insecurity is generally met by some form of clear submission or aggression. I've seen men literally slouch their shoulders and stare at the floor quietly. Others deal with their insecurity by overcompensating and trying to become overly 'masculine.' I actually had one guy cross the room to get into my face and ask me what my problem was. I realize that strong eye contact can be misinterpreted as aggression, so I didn't push the issue with him.
Women mostly react submissively, by breaking eye contact immediately, then looking quickly back. I think it's mostly instinctual, because 9 out of 10 women react exactly that way. The ones that don't react this way are generally older and unattractive. I'm not sure why exactly this is...perhaps because they've lost respect for masculinity after pussy-whipping their husbands. Unattractive women live a hard life, though, so it might just be a 'street tough' type of reaction, too.
Personal Space
By personal space, I mean the amount of physical area that I take up. If I sprawl across a couch, I'm taking up a lot of space. If I cross my arms and sit in a corner of the couch, I'm taking up minimal space.
Men generally seem to try to take up as much space as they can. I can relate to this because I always felt most comfortable with lots of room around me. Some take it to extremes, though...it becomes almost comical when you know what to look for...guys making themselves clearly uncomfortable just to control as much territory as possible. Unconciously I was annoyed at seeing this...but when I think about it, I think it's another overcompensation sign, which is a clear indication of insecurity. As far as interaction goes, though, I didn't see any difference in my interactions with other guys as it related to my personal area.
Women, on the other hand, seemed to naturally gravitate toward men that 'owned a lot of territory' in the room. I found eye contact more easily during the experiment, and noticed that women generally 'checked out' men with this trait frequently, while paying almost no attention to men who didn't stake a large territory.
Great stuff, People are funny creatures. I'll post some more later.
Eye Contact
Men feel threatened by strong eye contact. They often look down and away quickly and shuffle their feet or clear their throats. In a bar or club (where men are struggling to create and maintain social dominance), this insecurity is generally met by some form of clear submission or aggression. I've seen men literally slouch their shoulders and stare at the floor quietly. Others deal with their insecurity by overcompensating and trying to become overly 'masculine.' I actually had one guy cross the room to get into my face and ask me what my problem was. I realize that strong eye contact can be misinterpreted as aggression, so I didn't push the issue with him.
Women mostly react submissively, by breaking eye contact immediately, then looking quickly back. I think it's mostly instinctual, because 9 out of 10 women react exactly that way. The ones that don't react this way are generally older and unattractive. I'm not sure why exactly this is...perhaps because they've lost respect for masculinity after pussy-whipping their husbands. Unattractive women live a hard life, though, so it might just be a 'street tough' type of reaction, too.
Personal Space
By personal space, I mean the amount of physical area that I take up. If I sprawl across a couch, I'm taking up a lot of space. If I cross my arms and sit in a corner of the couch, I'm taking up minimal space.
Men generally seem to try to take up as much space as they can. I can relate to this because I always felt most comfortable with lots of room around me. Some take it to extremes, though...it becomes almost comical when you know what to look for...guys making themselves clearly uncomfortable just to control as much territory as possible. Unconciously I was annoyed at seeing this...but when I think about it, I think it's another overcompensation sign, which is a clear indication of insecurity. As far as interaction goes, though, I didn't see any difference in my interactions with other guys as it related to my personal area.
Women, on the other hand, seemed to naturally gravitate toward men that 'owned a lot of territory' in the room. I found eye contact more easily during the experiment, and noticed that women generally 'checked out' men with this trait frequently, while paying almost no attention to men who didn't stake a large territory.
Great stuff, People are funny creatures. I'll post some more later.