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Why Creepy People Give Us The Willies

G

garbage

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Ah, social roles and expectations.

They differ between our peers and our bosses. We expect peers to mimic us, to some extent; it demonstrates agreement. However, we tend to expect bosses to be formal and 'above' us; we don't expect them to empathize or mirror us at all. When they do, it throws us for a loop.

Subverting social expectations isn't necessarily a bad thing; those expectations are simply the shortcuts that we use to evaluate one another at first glance. Creepy people innately give us the willies because we're wired to think that it's a good general rule of thumb; figuring out who to trust and who to avoid has been pretty important in our development.

I'm surprised that the author of this article doesn't mention classic psychopaths and killers who were successful because they were known as charismatic and friendly--exceptions to the rule; they weren't expected to be killers.
 

Totenkindly

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...I'm surprised that the author of this article doesn't mention classic psychopaths and killers who were successful because they were known as charismatic and friendly--exceptions to the rule; they weren't expected to be killers.

...good ol' Ted...
 

Mal12345

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...good ol' Ted...

Yes and no.

The study isn't about psychopaths and killers. It's about people who know how to blend in whoever or whatever they are. Or: It's about the social worker using teenage slang when talking to your teenager in order to "communicate." Or: it's about white people who call the rapper fifty-cent "fitty-cent." But more importantly, it's about the instinctive effect this has on others. Obviously it's an instinct, because it's quite impossible to make oneself spontaneously feel chilly.

"The students then filled out a survey designed to discover how cold or warm they felt. It may sound strange, Leander says, but people often begin to feel cold when their social lives turn uncomfortable or otherwise unfulfilling—they literally get the chills."

I wrote "willies" (not "the chills") in the OP title and I see now that few if anybody who responded here actually read the original article. So in a sense this thread is a study based on an article written about another study.
 

Totenkindly

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Yes and no.

The study isn't about psychopaths and killers. It's about people who know how to blend in whoever or whatever they are. Or: It's about the social worker using teenage slang when talking to your teenager in order to "communicate." Or: it's about white people who call the rapper fifty-cent "fitty-cent." But more importantly, it's about the instinctive effect this has on others. Obviously it's an instinct, because it's quite impossible to make oneself spontaneously feel chilly.

"The students then filled out a survey designed to discover how cold or warm they felt. It may sound strange, Leander says, but people often begin to feel cold when their social lives turn uncomfortable or otherwise unfulfilling—they literally get the chills."

I wrote "willies" (not "the chills") in the OP title and I see now that few if anybody who responded here actually read the original article. So in a sense this thread is a study based on an article written about another study.

You should be responding with this to Bologna, not me.

My post merely was giving an example of what he meant by his post; but it was his point, not mine, and I never suggested that I thought that his idea of the thread was what you meant.
 
G

garbage

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I.. guess I should respond.. then? I didn't say that the original article was about psychopaths and killers. I'm broadening the implications of the article and connecting them to another phenomenon, based upon the discussion that's been taking place over the last page. Because psychopaths and killers blend in by following social norms.

Yeah.

I knew one, and he did exactly that. He was friendly, sociable, and skilled enough to manipulate people and bend them to his will.

I wrote "willies" (not "the chills") in the OP title and I see now that few if anybody who responded here actually read the original article. So in a sense this thread is a study based on an article written about another study.
I don't get it, because the article itself does use the word "willies." I don't see what your study has proven, other than that people sometimes don't recite article titles verbatim when replying to a thread or that people don't care as much about the temperature change as they do the link between "blending in socially" and "perceiving weirdness."
 

Mal12345

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You should be responding with this to Bologna, not me.

My post merely was giving an example of what he meant by his post; but it was his point, not mine, and I never suggested that I thought that his idea of the thread was what you meant.

I know, but I'm too tired to mess with clicking around.
 

Mal12345

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I.. guess I should respond.. then? I didn't say that the original article was about psychopaths and killers. I'm broadening the implications of the article and connecting them to another phenomenon, based upon the discussion that's been taking place over the last page. Because psychopaths and killers blend in by following social norms.

Yeah.

I knew one, and he did exactly that. He was friendly, sociable, and skilled enough to manipulate people and bend them to his will.


I don't get it, because the article itself does use the word "willies." I don't see what your study has proven, other than that people sometimes don't recite article titles verbatim when replying to a thread or that people don't care as much about the temperature change as they do the link between "blending in socially" and "perceiving weirdness."

Sorry, but the original article does indeed use the word "willies."
 
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