Creepiness

Last updated

Creepiness is the state of being creepy, or causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease to someone and/or something. [1] Certain traits or hobbies may make people seem creepy to others; interest in horror or the macabre might come across as 'creepy', and often people who are perverted or exhibit predatory behavior are called 'creeps'. The internet, especially some functions of social media, has been described as increasingly creepy. [2] Adam Kotsko has compared the modern conception of creepiness to the Freudian concept of unheimlich . The term has also been used to describe paranormal or supernatural phenomena.

Contents

History and studies

In the abstract the feeling of "creepiness" is subjective: for example some dolls have been described as creepy, [1] while what makes something "creepy" or "strange" to someone might seem totally normal to someone else, as the concept varies from person to person.

The adjective "creepy", referring to a feeling of creeping in the flesh, was first used in 1831, [3] but it was Charles Dickens who coined and popularized the term "the creeps" in his 1849 novel David Copperfield. [4]

During the 20th century, association was made between involuntary celibacy and creepiness. [5]

The concept of creepiness has only recently been formally addressed in social media marketing. [6]

The sensation of creepiness has only recently been the subject of psychological research, despite the widespread colloquial use of the word throughout the years. Frank McAndrew of Knox College is the first psychologist to do an empirical study on creepiness. [7]

Causes

The state of creepiness has been associated with "feeling scared, nervous, anxious or worried", "awkward or uncomfortable", "vulnerable or violated" in a study conducted by Watt et al. [8] : 61  This state arises in the presence of a creepy element, which can be an individual or, as recently observed, new technologies.

Individuals

Creepiness can be caused by the appearance of an individual. Another study [7] investigated the characteristics that make people creepy. Creepy people were thought to be more often male than female by an overwhelming majority of participants (around 95% of both male and female participants). [7] : 12  Another study conducted by Watt et al. also found that participants associated the ectomorphic body type (more linear) with creepiness, more than the other two body types (51% vs mesomorphic, 24% and endomorphic, 23%). Other cues of creepiness included low hygiene, especially according to female participants, and a disheveled appearance. Participants also identified the face as an area with potentially creepy features: in particular the eyes and the teeth. Both of those physical features were deemed creepy not only for their unpleasant appearance (ex. squinty eyes or crooked teeth) but also for the movements and expressions they engaged it (ex. darting eye movements and odd smiles). [8] : 61 

In fact, appearance does not seem to be the only factor making an individual creepy: behaviors provide cues as well. [8] : 58  Behaviors such as "being unusually quiet and staring (34%), following or lurking (15%), behaving abnormally (21%), or in a socially awkward, "sketchy" or suspicious way (20%)" are all contributing to a feeling of creepiness, as described by Watt et al.'s study. [8] : 61 

Technology

In addition to other individuals, new technologies, such as marketing's targeted ads and AI, have been qualified as creepy.

A study by Moore et al. [9] described what aspect of marketing participants considered creepy. The main three reasons are the following: using invasive tactics, causing discomfort and violating of norms. Invasive tactics are practiced by marketers that know so much about the consumer that the ads are "creepily" personalized. Secondly, some ads create discomfort by making the consumer question "the motives of the company advertising the product". Finally, some ads violate social norms by having inappropriate content, for example by unnecessarily sexualizing it. [9] : 48 

It is marketing's extensive knowledge used in an improper way, together with a certain loss of control over our data, that creates a feeling of creepiness. [9] : 44 

Another creepy aspect of technology is human-looking AI: this phenomenon is called the uncanny valley.

Humans find robots creepy when they start closely resembling humans. It has been hypothesized that the reason why they are viewed as creepy is because they violate our notion of how a robot should look. A study focusing on children's responses to this phenomenon found evidence to support the hypothesis. [10] : 1210 

Evolutionary explanation

Several studies have hypothesized that creepiness is an evolutionary response to potentially dangerous situations. [7] : 10  It could be linked to a mechanism called agent detection which makes individuals expect malignant agents to be responsible for small changes in the environment. McAndrew et al. illustrates the idea with the example of a person hearing some noises while walking in a dark alley. That person would go in high alert, fearing that some dangerous individual was there. If that was not the case the loss would be small. If, on the other hand, a dangerous individual was actually in the alley and the person had not been alerted by this creepy feeling, the loss could have been significant. [7] : 11 

Creepiness would therefore serve the purpose of alerting us in situations in which the danger is not outright obvious but rather ambiguous. In this case, ambiguity both refers to the possible presence of a threat and to its nature, sexual or physical for example. [7] : 10  Creepiness "may reside in between the unknowing and the fear" [8] : 58  in the sense that individuals experiencing it are unsure if there truly is something to fear or not. Creepy characteristics are not simply caused by threat potential: in fact, ectomorphic body types are not the most powerful bodies and facial expressions are not a proxy of physical strength either. [8] : 63  Therefore, creepiness is not only related to how threatening a characteristic is, in the sense of how dangerous and strong the individual can be. There are more facets to consider.[ clarification needed ] [11] [ unreliable source? ]

Another characteristic of creepiness is unpredictable behavior. [7] : 12  Unpredictability links back to this idea of ambiguity. [7] : 11  When an individual is unpredictable it is not possible to tell when their behavior will turn violent: this adds to the ambiguity of a potentially dangerous situation. This theory is endorsed by studies. Not only is unpredictability directly listed as a creepy characteristic, [7] : 13  but other behaviors, such as norm-breaking behaviors are indirectly linked with unpredictability. Such behaviors show that the individual does not conform to some social standards others would expect in a given situation. [12] : 773  For example, the aforementioned staring at strangers or lack of hygiene—behaviors that make us uneasy or creeped out because they do not fit the norm and therefore are not expected. More generally, participants tended to define creepiness as "different" in the sense of not behaving, or looking, socially acceptable. [8] : 62  Such differences point towards a "social mismatch". [7] : 10 

Humans have a natural system of detection of such mismatch: a physical feeling of coldness. [7] : 10  When an individual is creeped out, they report feeling those "cold chills". This phenomenon has been studied by Leander et al, with relation to nonverbal mimicry in social interactions, meaning the unintentional copying of another's behavior. Inappropriate mimicry may leave a person feeling like something is off about the other. [12] : 772  Absence of non-verbal mimicry in a friendly interaction, or the presence of it in a professional setting, raises suspicion as it does not follow the relevant social norms. Individuals are left wondering what other unusual behavior the other might engage in. [12] : 773 

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crowd psychology</span> Branch of social psychology

A category of social psychology known as "crowd psychology" or "mob psychology" examines how the psychology of a group of people differs from the psychology of any one person within the group. The study of crowd psychology looks into the actions and thought processes of both the individual members of the crowd and of the crowd as a collective social entity. The behavior of a crowd is much influenced by deindividuation and by the person's impression of the universality of behavior, both of which conditions increase in magnitude with size of the crowd. Notable theorists in crowd psychology include Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Many of these theories are today tested or used to simulate crowd behaviors in normal or emergency situations. One of the main focuses in these simulation works aims to prevent crowd crushes and stampedes.

A role is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given individual social status or social position. It is vital to both functionalist and interactionist understandings of society. Social role theory posits the following about social behavior:

  1. The division of labour in society takes the form of the interaction among heterogeneous specialized positions, we call roles.
  2. Social roles included appropriate and permitted forms of behavior and actions that recur in a group, guided by social norms, which are commonly known and hence determine the expectations for appropriate behavior in these roles, which further explains the position of a person in the society.
  3. Roles are occupied by individuals, who are called actors.
  4. When individuals approve of a social role, they will incur costs to conform to role norms, and will also incur costs to punish those who violate role norms.
  5. Changed conditions can render a social role outdated or illegitimate, in which case social pressures are likely to lead to role change.
  6. The anticipation of rewards and punishments, as well as the satisfaction of behaving pro-socially, account for why agents conform to role requirements.

The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in the presence of other people. The theory was first proposed in 1964 after the murder of Kitty Genovese, in which a newspaper had reported that 38 bystanders saw or heard the attack without coming to her assistance or calling the police. Much research, mostly in psychology research laboratories, has focused on increasingly varied factors, such as the number of bystanders, ambiguity, group cohesiveness, and diffusion of responsibility that reinforces mutual denial. If a single individual is asked to complete a task alone, the sense of responsibility will be strong, and there will be a positive response; however, if a group is required to complete a task together, each individual in the group will have a weak sense of responsibility, and will often shrink back in the face of difficulties or responsibilities.

In psychology, an attribution bias or attributional errors is a cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others' behaviors. It refers to the systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, often leading to perceptual distortions, inaccurate assessments, or illogical interpretations of events and behaviors.

In psychology, the false consensus effect, also known as consensus bias, is a pervasive cognitive bias that causes people to "see their own behavioral choices and judgments as relatively common and appropriate to existing circumstances". In other words, they assume that their personal qualities, characteristics, beliefs, and actions are relatively widespread through the general population.

The halo effect is the proclivity for positive impressions of a person, company, country, brand, or product in one area to positively influence one's opinion or feelings. The halo effect is "the name given to the phenomenon whereby evaluators tend to be influenced by their previous judgments of performance or personality." The halo effect is a cognitive bias which can prevent someone from forming an image of a person, a product or a brand based on the sum of all objective circumstances at hand.

Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in choosing how to behave in a given situation. The term was coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence: Science and Practice.

In-group favoritism, sometimes known as in-group–out-group bias, in-group bias, intergroup bias, or in-group preference, is a pattern of favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways.

Herd mentality is the tendency for people’s behavior or beliefs to conform to those of the group they belong to. The concept of herd mentality has been studied and analyzed from different perspectives, including biology, psychology and sociology. This psychological phenomenon can have profound impacts on human behavior.

Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention. For the social psychologist, the level of analysis is the individual in the context of a social situation. As such, social psychologists emphasize the role of internal psychological processes. Other social scientists, such as sociologists, are more concerned with broad social, economic, political, and historical factors that influence events in a given society.

Normality is a behavior that can be normal for an individual when it is consistent with the most common behavior for that person. Normal is also used to describe individual behavior that conforms to the most common behavior in society. However, normal behavior is often only recognized in contrast to abnormality. In many cases normality is used to make moral judgements, such that normality is seen as good while abnormality is seen as bad, or conversely normality can be seen as boring and uninteresting. Someone being seen as normal or not normal can have social ramifications, such as being included, excluded or stigmatized by wider society.

Expectancy violations theory (EVT) is a theory of communication that analyzes how individuals respond to unanticipated violations of social norms and expectations. The theory was proposed by Judee K. Burgoon in the late 1970s and continued through the 1980s and 1990s as "nonverbal expectancy violations theory", based on Burgoon's research studying proxemics. Burgoon's work initially analyzed individuals' allowances and expectations of personal distance and how responses to personal distance violations were influenced by the level of liking and relationship to the violators. The theory was later changed to its current name when other researchers began to focus on violations of social behavior expectations beyond nonverbal communication.

Emotional contagion is a form of social contagion that involves the spontaneous spread of emotions and related behaviors. Such emotional convergence can happen from one person to another, or in a larger group. Emotions can be shared across individuals in many ways, both implicitly or explicitly. For instance, conscious reasoning, analysis, and imagination have all been found to contribute to the phenomenon. The behaviour has been found in humans, other primates, dogs, and chickens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theory of reasoned action</span> Psychological theory

The theory of reasoned action aims to explain the relationship between attitudes and behaviors within human action. It is mainly used to predict how individuals will behave based on their pre-existing attitudes and behavioral intentions. An individual's decision to engage in a particular behavior is based on the outcomes the individual expects will come as a result of performing the behavior. Developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen in 1967, the theory derived from previous research in social psychology, persuasion models, and attitude theories. Fishbein's theories suggested a relationship between attitude and behaviors. However, critics estimated that attitude theories were not proving to be good indicators of human behavior. The TRA was later revised and expanded by the two theorists in the following decades to overcome any discrepancies in the A–B relationship with the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and reasoned action approach (RAA). The theory is also used in communication discourse as a theory of understanding.

Compliance is a response—specifically, a submission—made in reaction to a request. The request may be explicit or implicit. The target may or may not recognize that they are being urged to act in a particular way.

Self-conscious emotions, such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride, are a variety of social emotions that relate to our sense of self and our consciousness of others' reactions to us.

VUCA is an acronym based on the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, to describe or to reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations. The U.S. Army War College introduced the concept of VUCA in 1987, to describe a more complex multilateral world perceived as resulting from the end of the Cold War. More frequent use and discussion of the term began from 2002. It has subsequently spread to strategic leadership in organizations, from for-profit corporations to education.

Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, guidance shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often choose to conform to society rather than to pursue personal desires – because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than forging a new one. Thus, conformity is sometimes a product of group communication. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or in society as a whole and may result from subtle unconscious influences, or from direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when an individual is alone. For example, people tend to follow social norms when eating or when watching television, even if alone.

Situational strength is defined as cues provided by environmental forces regarding the desirability of potential behaviors. Situational strength is said to result in psychological pressure on the individual to engage in and/or refrain from particular behaviors. A consequence of this psychological pressure to act in a certain way is the likelihood that despite an individual's personality, they will act in a certain manner. As such, when strong situations exist, the relationship between personality variables and behaviors is reduced, because no matter what the personality of the individual is, they will act in a way dictated by the situation. When weak situations exist, there is less structure and more ambiguity with respect to what behaviors to perform.

Social Mirror Theory (SMT) states that people are not capable of self-reflection without taking into consideration a peer's interpretation of the experience. In other words, people define and resolve their internal musings through other's viewpoint. SMT's background is derived from the 1800s from concepts related to the study of public opinion and social interaction by Wilhelm Dilthey, the German philosopher and sociologist.

References

  1. 1 2 Wade, Lisa (26 December 2015). "What is "creepiness"?". Sociological Images . The Society Pages. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  2. ↑ Heller, Nathan (9 July 2015). "The Age of Creepiness". Cultural Comment. The New Yorker .
  3. ↑ Harper, Douglas. "creepy". Online Etymology Dictionary . Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  4. ↑ McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez (29 October 2015). "On the Science of Creepiness". Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  5. ↑ Flynt, Henry (1975). Blueprint for a Higher Civilization. In 1961–1962, I tried to develop a theory of the creep problem. This theory took involuntary celibacy as the defining characteristic of the creep.
  6. ↑ Rishi, Bikramjit; Bandyopadhyay, Subir (2017). Contemporary Issues in Social Media Marketing. Routledge. p. 195. ISBN   978-1317193982. In this chapter, we define creepiness and discuss how privacy and perceived creepiness differ. Then, we explain why creepiness matters and provide recommendations to minimize the negative effect of perceived creepiness on customer
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 McAndrew, Frank; Koehnke, Sara S. (2016-12-01). "On the nature of creepiness". New Ideas in Psychology. 43: 10–15. doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2016.03.003. ISSN   0732-118X.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Watt, Margo C.; Maitland, Rebecca A.; Gallagher, Catherine E. (January 2017). "A case of the "heeby jeebies": An examination of intuitive judgements of "creepiness"". Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science . 49 (1). American Psychological Association: 58–69. doi:10.1037/cbs0000066. S2CID   151348243.
  9. 1 2 3 Moore, Robert S.; Moore, Melissa L.; Shanahan, Kevin J.; Horky, Alisha; Mack, Britney (2015). "Creepy marketing: three dimensions of perceived excessive online privacy violation" (PDF). Marketing Management Journal. 25 (1). Marketing Management Association: 42–53.
  10. ↑ Brink, Kimberly A.; Gray, Kurt; Wellman, Henry M. (July 2019). "Creepiness Creeps In: Uncanny Valley Feelings Are Acquired in Childhood". Child Development . 90 (4). Society for Research in Child Development: 1202–1214. doi:10.1111/cdev.12999. hdl: 2027.42/150519 . PMID   29236300.
  11. ↑ Pellot, Emerald (8 July 2021). "'Guardian angel' bartender hands woman secret note to get out of 'creepy' situation: 'This could literally save lives'". Yahoo. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Leander, N. Pontus; Chartrand, Tanya L.; Bargh, John A. (July 2012). "You Give Me the Chills: Embodied Reactions to Inappropriate Amounts of Behavioral Mimicry". Psychological Science . 23 (7). Association for Psychological Science: 772–779. doi:10.1177/0956797611434535. PMID   22609538. S2CID   206586096.

General citations

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.