People-watching or crowd watching is the act of observing people and their interactions as a subconscious doing. It involves picking up on idiosyncrasies to try to interpret or guess at another person's story, interactions, and relationships with the limited details they have. This includes speech in action, relationship interactions, body language, expressions, clothing and activities.

Eavesdropping Eavesdropping is the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private conversation or communications of others without their consent in order to gather information. Etymology The verb ''eavesdrop'' is a back-formation from the noun ''eaves ...

may accompany the activity, though is not required."People-Watching: Here’s Looking at You"
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New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' 15 October 2006 For some people, it is considered a hobby, but for many others, it is a subconscious activity they partake in every day without even realizing it. People-watching is not to be confused with

naturalistic observation Naturalistic observation, sometimes referred to as fieldwork, is a research methodology in numerous fields of science including ethology, anthropology, linguistics, the social sciences, and psychology, in which data are collected as they occur i ...

. Naturalistic observation is used for scientific purposes, whereas people-watching is a casual activity, used for relaxation or inspiration for characters or characters' mannerisms in their own creative works. It should also not be confused with street photography; while the street photographer necessarily does people-watching, they do so for the purpose of taking photographs of the people for art and documentary purposes.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:People Watching Anthropology Observation hobbies Crowds

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