What qualities define a person as “creepy”? #Creepy #Characteristics #SocialCues
Are you curious about the traits that set off alarm bells in our minds when we encounter someone we find unsettling or uncomfortable to be around? Here’s a breakdown of the subtle cues that make someone come across as creepy.
Lack of Boundaries:
– Invading personal space
– Asking inappropriate questions
– Making unwanted advances
Odd Behavior:
– Unusual fixation or obsession
– Erratic movements or speech
– Lack of social awareness
Intense Gaze:
– Prolonged staring
– Unblinking eyes
– Overly focused attention
Conclusion:
By understanding these key characteristics, we can better navigate social interactions and identify when someone’s behavior veers into the “creepy” territory. Stay aware and trust your instincts when it comes to your comfort level with others.
Not being honest about their intentions towards you.
If they figure out someone’s schedule, like a gym schedule, and show up at that time just so they can watch/chat with them.
Being over-calculative in social settings.
When their facial expressions don’t reach their eyes.
ETA: I really wish I’d written that it *can* be creepy, not that it always is. There are lots of reasons people can do this that aren’t creepy, like anxiety. For me, it’s creepy when I get the sense that someone is trying to control and manipulate me by acting a certain way.
Never giving up when someone turns them down
if they display intense, unwelcome attention, invade personal space, or exhibit unpredictable or unsettling behavior.
I’m going to go ahead and say a lot of it is dependent on attraction.
I have a friend who got drunk off her ass and “confessed” to her bf that if he ever tried to leave her she thinks she may kill him before letting him walk away.
**She said he just smirked and said “the feeling is mutual.”**
Now I think this is creepy as hell but she LIKED it. Hell, she said it was comforting.
Creepiness, to me, is about hidden danger — whether actual physical danger, or just danger of being pulled into an unpleasant situation. So creepiness, to me, is anything that suggests that someone is hiding their true intentions — whether it’s a guy who is pretending to be nice, but with whom you don’t want to be alone, or a person who’s smiling but not really.
And that, in my view, is why people who are socially awkward can sometimes come off as creepy — what they’re doing looks unnatural (because it’s unnatural for them), which triggers the “what is this person hiding” response.
Bad hygiene, staring, knowing too much personal info about people that barely even know them.
Touching someone too much
“Conveniently” showing up wherever you happen to be.
intense eye contact… i hung out with this girl she would hardly blink or look away for even a second
The haircut Javier Bardem had in “No Country for Old Men”.
Storing dead body parts around their homes.
I see a few “dead eyes” comments, but what creeps me out are those people who one minute seem to be genuinely smiling and the next you actually see the light go out in their eyes, like a predator honing in on its prey. I don’t know how to describe it, but you can just see their eyes go darker even if they are still smiling
Touching a lot!
Some people are just touchy people, but constantly touching me (especially my back) when I haven’t given you permission to? AND actively try to move away? Its very creepy. Stop going out of your way to just touch me.
Stalking. Whether in person or online.
lingering stares, invading personal space, or persistently trying to initiate contact despite clear signals of disinterest, crossing someone’s boundaries can quickly veer into creepy territory.
Being unable to tell when you’re making someone uncomfortable is the biggest factor of creepiness. Everyone makes social mistakes from time to time, but most people know how and when to tone it down when they feel the person they’re talking to seems uncomfortable. A creep would be oblivious to the fact that someone is sketched out…
If I set a small boundary and they cross it. For example if they are in my personal space, I will move out of the way, if they come close again after I send a clear nonverbal signal, thats creepy.
Growing up as a child we had neighbors further down the road. They creeped me because I never saw them once in my life, despite their front door usually standing open. You would look in & only see darkness. Once I looked through their bathroom window and saw a small dead animal in their bathtub. I’m assuming it went in & died by itself but was still creepy. Once day I saw something sticking out of their garbage bags. I decided to investigate unwrapping it. I saw it was a huge bone like a cow leg or something, too large to be human. It occurred to me they ate or cooked a whole cow. I just found them so creepy…and never saw them once
A friend trying to “ sell” you something .
When they insist on inserting themselves into things they were not invited to. People who are always on the lookout for some commment made somewhere they can jump in on
I feel like I’m creepy a lot of the time. In person I’m extremely silent. Don’t speak unless spoken to. And I’m sad a lot of the time and get into my own head a lot, so I just have this Gus Fring stare into the floor. I do it for hours, so yeah, I feel like that creeps people out..
Hidden intentions and this infatuation with you. They build a fantasy about you, but they never talk to you. They will watch you and talk about you, do what they can to learn about you and your whereabouts, but they aren’t interacting with you. You might even make it obvious that you don’t like being around them and they might understand that and yet persist.
Pushiness. No means no. People who refuse to take no for an answer immediately set off my alarm bells.
Bad sense of boundaries. Verbal and physical
They don’t take information about people’s personalities, wants and needs on board when interacting with them, they just do whatever they want in any given context and expect a positive reaction.
Buying a stranger a drink and expecting them to drink it then and there. Giving mere acquaintances expensive gifts. Making banter-type jokes that don’t actually apply to the person you’re joking about. Making plans by themselves and then expecting people to play along.
A lot of the things people are mentioning are symptoms, not causes, however. Being dishonest about what they want, displaying unwanted attention, keeping track of the personal habits of strangers are characteristics, but not the underlying cause of creepiness.
Lots of people who are creepy are creepy because they view **socialization as a game with rules, expected payouts, and statistics that need to be tracked to play the game**. Classic Nice Guys aren’t the only offenders, lots of people behave like this in office environments, friendships, and committed relationships.
They believe that after a certain amount of certain correct ‘moves’ they can expect a reward, which causes them to track social interactions, attempt to drive social interactions in awkward ways, and causes them to react and act in unpredictable ways because nobody else shares the ‘payout’ model they’ve got in their head.
Your co-worker flips out on you one day out of the blue for a percieved slight? They’ve been being friendly to you in certain ways where they expected you to be paying it back, and they don’t understand why you haven’t. Mother treating their adult child like shit, while tallying up their failures? Of course, think of all they’ve done for their kid! They shouldn’t have to be polite or sugarcoat anything to them, the child is forever indebted to them socially-they get to play that game on their own terms. Of course you should be able to log into all their social media accounts! The weird business bro who’s constantly intentionally overstepping boundaries and acting weirdly pumped about things has been taught that the ‘game’ can be won by playing assertively in a way that feels unnatural to normal people.
Social cues aren’t easy for everyone, and many people find it helpful to view socialization as a game in many contexts to work out the unspoken rules. But the game should only be viewed as a model, that makes low-stakes socialization easier- you can’t forget the real humans behind the model that you’re only approximating. The map is not the territory.
People seem inhuman and creepy when they stop treating other people like humans.
so i used to avoid eye contact since it was uncomfortable for me. but then, i learned to make eye contact.
by staring intently into the eyes of whoever was speaking.
turns out that’s creepy, and i was (rightfully) shunned for it in high school.
also a side note, turns out i may have undiagnosed autism.
Eyes not moving with emotions