People-watching fun while waiting

People-watching – an avocation enjoyed by many – can occur in a variety of situations. In fact, anywhere there are people to watch, you can sharpen your deductive powers a la Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes.

People-watching can extend to everyday places such as the line at the grocery store. Being an admitted Type A personality who is trying to modify this behavior, I attempt to curb my time urgency and impatience by looking around at the other checkout lines for other Type A personalities.

Very obvious to the trained observer, their knuckles are white as they grip the handles of the grocery cart. Their eyes are intent and expel a sense of urgency as they watch the people in the lines ahead of them. You can almost feel them shouting, “Hurry up,” as they shift their body weight from one foot to the other.

You don’t have to be a psychologist to enjoy observing people. You can pass the time in a waiting situation or you can gain useful information by watching human behavior.

Consider these practical situations:

• Watch for a crowded restaurant and you will probably find that the food is good.

• Look around a hotel lobby and you can quickly determine if the manner of service is good.

• I enjoy watching people as they leave a movie. You can get a pretty good critique of the show from the responses, verbal or non-verbal, of the theater leavers. Recently I was waiting in line while the crowd exited from a popular hit. By the numbers of those with tears streaming down their cheeks I began to prepare myself for the possibility of a real “tear jerker.”

• People-watching is a means of social validation or provides information for use in determining goals or social appropriateness. I often have heard women say they went to football games simply to look at the variety of clothes the other women were wearing and to see what was “in” for the season.

• People at work and at play show different sides of their personalities. Not to imply that there is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in each of us, I simply mean that we may be reserved and prim in one role and very relaxed and carefree in another. Watch a spectator at a football game. Some seem to have inhibitions and some wave their arms and jump up and down.

• When you strike up a conversation with a stranger while traveling, it is fun to guess his occupation and lifestyle.

As I said, you don’t have to be a psychologist to enjoy watching people. But I though you might be interested to know what a psychologist would think about as he watched people in a variety of situations.

Next week I will share with you some observations made recently while waiting in a large airport.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1986