People-watching or crowd watching is the act of observing people and their interactions in public. [1] [2] It involves picking up on idiosyncrasies to try to interpret or guess at another person's story, interactions, and relationships with the limited details they have. [3] This includes speech in action, relationship interactions, body language, expressions, clothing, activities and crowd behaviours. Eavesdropping may accompany the activity, as documented by the humor blog Overheard in New York , though is not required. [4]
People-watching is distinguished from naturalistic observation, a process used for scientific purposes, compared to people-watching as a casual activity, used for relaxation or inspiration for characters or characters' mannerisms in their own creative works. [5] It can also be distinguished from street photography; while the street photographer necessarily undertakes a form of people-watching, they do so for the purpose of composing photographs for artistic and documentary purposes. [6]