I’m not buying that heatmap data. Why are almost all the dots on the left red? That would mean that women pick a random spot and focus on that for an extended period of time before moving on to the next. This is not really how you’d investigate a scene. The right images are much more believable to me: Short glances at random points to get an overview of the scene and then re-investigating points of interest.

I am a man, though. Women: Do you really stare random points into oblivion?

Edit:

Ok, at first I thought this was actual eye tracking information. However,

[researches] asked [participants] to click on areas in the photo that caught their attention.

Then the different-colored dots make even less sense. And why are there fringes?

I look mostly at the ground to avoid stepping on dog poo.

Edit: looks like the study was not done using eye tracking and was instead done with pictures:

https://news.byu.edu/intellect/study-visually-captures-hard-truth-walking-home-at-night-is-not-the-same-for-women <- news thing

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vio.2023.0027 <- paper

Participants were given 16 images and asked to consider walking alone through the place in the picture. Using the Qualtrics heat map tool, they were instructed to imagine themselves walking through these areas and to click on the area(s) of the image that stood out to the most to them.

Source: the research article paper I linked above

Also, even if it was done with some type of eye tracking glasses, if you knew you were taking part in a study, would you be worried about what might happen, in comparison to how worried you are normally? Like I'm not gonna be worried about someone sneaking up on me if I know I'm being observed and more likely to be safe, so naturally I'd be more relaxed. I imagine the same applies for other people.

Broad conclusions for a study conducted on a population of ~500 undergrad students at a single religious university in one city of one state of one country.

that location at BYU specifically is informally known as Rape Hill, so of course the women aren't looking straight ahead

i know i'm very glib and i joke a lot, but i'm deadly serious right now.

Noted. Attack men from the side, women from the front 😎

I feel like you should probably do this study again outside of BYU and more generally outside of Utah, Mormon culture especially Utah Mormon culture is weird and could definitely fuck with a study like this.

Though fun bit of personal experience with this exact scenario, my grandmother has better general visual awareness while my non visual awareness is a lot better overall. This means I subconsciously avoid things around me due to feel, sound, and smell but can be looking directly at something and not see it. Probably has something to do with the fact my eyesight is naturally fucked though, so my edge vision is basically useless for everything outside of movement since it's basically just a blurry blob.

I'm male but when I was a kid, my mom talked about stranger danger a lot and warned me about the supposed widespread kidnappings (was in China) and warned of "strangers following me home" I constantly just look around and glance back behind me every 30 seconds or so and check if someone is following me... and same thing when in the US too

This habit just stuck with me...

I probably look weird af lol

I don't trust Mormon findings until they are peer reviewed.

“Why can’t we live in a world where women don’t have to think about these things? It’s heartbreaking to hear of things women close to me have dealt with,” Chaney said. “It would be nice to work towards a world where there is no difference between the heat maps in these sets of images. That is the hope of the public health discipline.”

I'm not convinced this phenomenon would disappear in a world where women don't have to think about these things. It could be an evolutionary psychology thing. Would have to repeat the experiment in different societies and environments to find out.

Really? I scan the environment too, even check for snipers.

New proof that I am indeed a woman just dropped 💅🏻

Take that transphobes !

Guess I'm a woman now. Thanks PTSD. Didn't even get the boobs.

Even if this was a conclusive study (sounds like there’s some issues there with selection and methodology,)….

This is probably because women are more likely to be harassed/assaulted/raped/mugged/etc.

Other vulnerable groups (trans, immigrants, etc) are probably are also scanning and maintaining better situational awareness.

It’d be nice to be able to walk down a street without making other people uncomfortable because men in general are less assholish than bears.

As a somewhat paranoid person, you better believe I ain't looking just straight ahead, even as a man. You never know who is nearby, waiting to confront you for any reason.

TIL i'm a woman

Source: https://news.byu.edu/intellect/study-visually-captures-hard-truth-walking-home-at-night-is-not-the-same-for-women

I wouldn't be looking at any of that, where's the smartphone showing dumb memes?

Alright yall, experiment time.

Go bird watching. Or squirrels. Something hard to spot that moves quickly.

Scan the treeline, or instead fixate on a point straight ahead. Do what comes naturally first, then the opposite. What method "spots" the motion first?

See what method works better for you. Hope it helps!

Well, a man who scanned the periphery would come across as shifty (“what’s he looking for? is he some kind of voyeur or predator? he’s not staring at that girl’s tits, is he, the creep?”), so looking straight ahead is kind of like keeping one’s hands where everyone can see them. Though granted the absence of likely threats would also have an influence.

Men are better at detecting motion. I would bet men are better at detecting motion in their perephiral vision too.