Apparently, science has a way to measure someone’s creepiness and we are intrigued
Sadly, we’ve probably all met them — creepy guys and girls. Some people just seem to have a higher creepiness factor, right?! Now, a new study is out by New Ideas in Psychology that can tell us once and for all what makes someone creepy, reported Women’s Health. If you think that’s not essential info, think again.
How was the study done?
Online. Researchers took an international sample of 1,341 people and had them respond to an online survey regarding what they thought was creepy. The study, “On the nature of creepiness,” was the first of its kind.
"Surprisingly, until now there has never been an empirical study of 'creepiness,'" the study stated.
The dl on what the researchers found? Here are some highlights.
Males are more likely to be labeled as “creepy” than females.
The stat on his? A whopping 95.3 percent of respondents believed males are more likely to be creepy than females. Female and male participants both thought so, 95.2 percent and 95.5 percent, respectively (!). As you can see, males thought so even a bit more than females!
A big component of creepiness? Unpredictabililty.
The study also found “elements of creepiness,” aka traits that creepy people tend to have, such as “The person had unkempt hair,” “The person was dressed oddly,” and “The person laughed at unpredictable times.”
Some jobs and hobbies have a higher creepiness factor than others.
People still rank clowns as the creepiest, and clowns were followed by taxidermists, sex shop owners, funeral directors, and taxi drivers. Taxi drivers?! (I wonder how far down Uber drivers would be on the list? Uber drivers did not make it into the 21 professions named in the study, btw.)
Similarly, participants were asked to list two hobbies that they considered to be creepy.
The winner?
A hobby that involved collecting things, like dolls, insects, reptiles, or body parts (particularly teeth, bones, or fingernails).
The runner-up?
“Watching,” meaning watching, following, or taking pictures of people (especially children). Bird watchers were included, too, while others mentioned a fascination with pornography or exotic sexual activity and taxidermy.
Females are more likely to perceive sexual threats from a creepy person.
This response was based on the researchers asking participants the degree to which "steering a conversation toward sex was perceived as a probable characteristic of a creepy person and the degree to which the respondent agreed with the statement that the creepy person 'has a sexual interest in me,'" the study said.
The big question:
Do you think creepy people know they’re creepy?
The researchers wondered this, too, and asked in their survey. The answer? Almost 60 percent said “no”! ?
Want more on the study? You can read the in-depth findings here.
