• MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    that location at BYU specifically is informally known as Rape Hill, so of course the women aren’t looking straight ahead

    i know i’m very glib and i joke a lot, but i’m deadly serious right now.

    • paul@lemmy.org
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      7 months ago

      Wouldn’t work, men don’t just star blankly ahead, we scan the periphery without moving our eyes. We don’t need to scan all around because our periphery is really good at spotting movement, this is why we can’t see that thing in the fridge despite being right in front of us, it’s not moving.

      • Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        You joke, but when I worked in a grocery store people would ask for help finding something and nine times out of ten it was literally right in front of their face.

  • I’m male but when I was a kid, my mom talked about stranger danger a lot and warned me about the supposed widespread kidnappings (was in China) and warned of “strangers following me home” I constantly just look around and glance back behind me every 30 seconds or so and check if someone is following me… and same thing when in the US too

    This habit just stuck with me…

    I probably look weird af lol

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I tend to turn it into a “casual sweep” of the scene. I’m looking at leaves, architecture, license plates! Well, and also getting a glimpse of whoever’s around me. From being bullied in grade school, to learning to fly in college, with growing up as a young women between the two eras, situational awareness has become baked into my existence. But it’s not a bad thing, it’s a skill.

      Tangentially, I wonder how much of this increased situational awareness plays into our famous “women’s intuition”? If we’re taking in more of our surroundings, it makes sense our unconscious minds will notice more readily when something’s “off.”

      As well, I’ve often considered my “luck” to come down to increased awareness. When retrospectively thinking about a sequence of events, I can sometimes put together how noticing A led to me doing B, even if I didn’t consciously think about it at the time. Like unconsciously noticing that a car in front of you is somewhat lopsided and getting the urge to switch lanes and pass them. You’re not thinking about it. But later on when that car spins out on a flat tire, you’re well past them - a safe distance away.

      Or a situation that undoubtly makes people think I’m lucky - finding four-leaf clovers. A split-second scan of the ground and I can notice a four-leafer in a patch. Just a few months ago I was pumpkin-picking with my girlfriend and it happened again. We were standing outside and I was telling her about this exact phenomenon when I stopped, laughed, crouched down, plucked one particular clover, and handed it to her. “See?! It just happens!” I then proceeded to find two more, and at that point I knew I had to stop myself.

      So yeah, it’s not all bad. :)

  • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I feel like you should probably do this study again outside of BYU and more generally outside of Utah, Mormon culture especially Utah Mormon culture is weird and could definitely fuck with a study like this.

    Though fun bit of personal experience with this exact scenario, my grandmother has better general visual awareness while my non visual awareness is a lot better overall. This means I subconsciously avoid things around me due to feel, sound, and smell but can be looking directly at something and not see it. Probably has something to do with the fact my eyesight is naturally fucked though, so my edge vision is basically useless for everything outside of movement since it’s basically just a blurry blob.

      • tetris11@feddit.uk
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        7 months ago

        They used to call him the Owl in highschool, not because of his rotating head but because of the inappropriate hooting noises he made whenever his future wife walked into the room.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Even if this was a conclusive study (sounds like there’s some issues there with selection and methodology,)….

    This is probably because women are more likely to be harassed/assaulted/raped/mugged/etc.

    Other vulnerable groups (trans, immigrants, etc) are probably are also scanning and maintaining better situational awareness.

    It’d be nice to be able to walk down a street without making other people uncomfortable because men in general are less assholish than bears.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 months ago

      It’d be nice to be able to walk down a street without making other people uncomfortable because men in general are less assholish than bears.

      A part of it is large numbers bias. Very few people encounter bears, so very few people experience bear attacks. Even if every bear was predisposed to attacking people, there would still be very few bear attacks. But virtually everyone encounters men on a near daily basis. So even if the likelihood of an attack is extremely low on a case-by-case basis, the overall number of incidents is much higher simply because there are more cases of people encountering men.

      That’s why the go-to response to “it’s not every man” essentially boils down to “sure, it’s not every man. But it’s enough of them…”

    • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Right… peripheral vision in general is better at motion, but shit for details. It’s why sacchads happen seemingly at random; often something is signalled in the periphery, so the individual glances in that direction.

      • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        Also, another thing to consider is whether there’s other people around and what their gender is. Consider the scenario of me (a man) walking down the street at night and there’s one person around that I need to pass by to get where I’m going.

        If I’m constantly moving my head to look around at everything, I’m going to look really shady and make other people worried. I’m just trying to get somewhere, so I’d rather not bother people, which means it’s better to just look ahead and kinda ignore them, and trust that my peripheral vision will pick up any actual threats.

        That all being said, this experiment wasn’t set up to consider that at all. Especially since the study is from Brigham Young University (ew), and at a spot on campus referred to as “Rape Hill”. So thinking this much about the study is probably a waste of ti.e

  • redknight942@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    Alright yall, experiment time.

    Go bird watching. Or squirrels. Something hard to spot that moves quickly.

    Scan the treeline, or instead fixate on a point straight ahead. Do what comes naturally first, then the opposite. What method “spots” the motion first?

    See what method works better for you. Hope it helps!

    • Malfeasant@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I ride a motorcycle… When I was doing the MSF training (after riding illegally for years), I kept getting dinged for not turning my head to look into a turn. Thing is, I have excellent peripheral vision. I can see 90° to either side when I’m looking straight ahead - so I tend to keep my gaze straight ahead regardless of where my attention is…

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        yeah, i got dinged on my driver’s test for not turning my head to look. because my eyes can rotate in their sockets, something the examiner did not consider.

      • thejoker954@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Its been years since I took the course, but I believe one of the reasons for turning your head into a turn is “balance”. It basically recenters yourself into the turn.

        The other is not all helmets are made the same. Some are going to restrict your vision more than others.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    Aware people look about. Unaware people don’t. But yeah, let’s divide it by gender.

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I mean, there are plenty of studies and experiences that genuinely show women have not just a greater concern for their safety, especially at night, but are far more likely to be assaulted than men.

      • kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        The only violent crimes that women are more likely to be victims of are sexual ones. Any nonsexual violent crime is more likely to have a male victim. Is this because women are more cautious? Maybe!

  • ExLisperA
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    7 months ago

    That’s why I can never find anything and have to ask my girlfriend for help. I’m bad at scanning the periphery.