That completely certain feeling that there is someone watching, which makes a shiver run down your spine and you end up jumping to look back and to the sides. Only to find out that no one is paying attention. This is known as scopaesthesia or scopaesthesia, a psychological phenomenon that is characterized by the perception of other people's gaze. Or what is the same, feeling that you are being watched by another individual. It can happen to anyone, although there are those who experience it more frequently than others. And, many times, it is right. While, on many other occasions, no.
Psychologists offer several explanations when answering the question of why this happens. Since it is not about any type of extraordinary ability or capacity, as explained by the specialist in social psychology and emotional intelligence Valeria Sabater. The answer is more related to the human survival instinct.
When talking about scopaesthesia, we inevitably have to mention the psychologist Edward Titchener, who was one of the first to analyze it. In fact, in 1898 he published a study in the journal Science about this phenomenon, with which he was in charge of dismantling myths related to extrasensory abilities. Instead, Titchener pointed to a scientific explanation: the human survival instinct.
People continue to maintain certain behaviors inherited from their ancestors. Among them is the alert mechanism that aims to warn of any possible threat or danger. “Everything that remains behind us can be a danger,” explains psychologist Valeria Sabater. For this reason, the brain sends alarm signals in order to check what is out of control of the visual field to which it has access.
However, another reason already studied by Titchener could be the action of the amygdala, a region of the brain linked to emotions capable of detecting threats. In this sense, the specialist remembers that people do not only have five senses. But it is estimated that there are many more, including some such as kinesthesia.
While a third possibility after scopasesthesia would be the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy. The psychologist affirms that, sometimes, it is the people themselves who attract the attention of others. For example, simply moving to check if someone is looking could cause another individual to pay attention to what is happening. The result is discovering that you were right. A situation that happens very frequently and that often explains these cases.
