eye contact

Since moving to SF, I haven't yet procured a parking permit, so I've been parking my car away from my neighborhood, where I can find permit-free parking. This has the benefit of letting me leave my car somewhere for a week without having to move it, and leaves my car far enough away such that is helps me reduce the amount of driving I do. It also gives me the chance to take some nice walks and/or jogs up and down the hills of San Francisco. After moving my car today, I was walking down upper market, thinking about the qualitative research methods class I took last semester, so thought I'd try a simple experiment.

For everyone I saw as I walked down the sidewalk, either other folks walking or people in nearby stores, I would try to make eye contact just to see how people would respond. I tried to keep my face very neutral, with a slight smile, so as to be basically friendly but not overly inviting. I then just tried to keep a tally of reaction types as I walked (a total of about 7 city blocks).

The vast majority of folks struck me as "commuters": other people walking on the sidewalk apparently trying to get somewhere. About 80% of them were not looking around, and did not even notice my sweeping gaze, let alone react to it. A few couples also passed by, with their attention locked solely on each other. About another 15% or so of walkers would see my eyes and immediately look away. The remaining folks would meet my gaze, let the connection linger for a moment, and then hit a natural break. For the most part such exchanges matched the friendly/neutral disposition I was trying to project - it felt to me primarily as a mutual acknowledgement of each other's presence.

The only real uncomfortable reaction was from a rather large man walking with an attractive woman, both of whom looked to be in their mid to late twenties. I looked to the lady first (possibly my mistake), but she was looking off elsewhere. I then looked at the man, and soon found his gaze baring directly down on mine. I couldn't read the reaction - it wasn't overtly hostile but it was anything but friendly. Was it a defensive instinct due to the woman, old-fashioned machismo, or just discomfort from some stranger looking you right in the eye?

Also interesting were the folks sitting or standing along the street. Unlike the commuters, they weren't going somewhere, they already were somewhere. While some where engaged in an activity such as having a conversation or reading a newspaper, others were just watching the street. Most of these folks would find my eye contact and immediately look away, but then I would catch them looking back, again breaking away once they saw my gaze was still there. I interpreted this in most cases as a desire to watch without being accountable for it. That is, to watch with impunity. That's fine by me. It's why I love sunglasses.