Strangers in the street

Two strangers are walking towards each other on the street.

They don’t make eye contact.

They don’t make eye contact.

Then, just as they’re passing each other they both look each other full in the face.

What’s that about?

I see it happen all the time.

I think it could be a symptom of a small town – there’s a good chance you might now this oncoming stranger.

Or it could be a social monitoring thing. You look up to check if this person scoffs at your outfit, checks you out or ignores you. You get some kind of feedback from their reaction to soothe/exacerbate your insecurities.

Alternatively you’ve seen others do it and therefore you repeat it and have no idea why.

Another possibility is that the last second look satisfies a curiousity about what other humans look like.

I don’t know exactly what it is about but it’s something I noticed.