Title: Why Do I Feel Like I’m Being Watched? This Is The Scientific Reason For Paranoia
Headings: If You Feel Like You’re Always Being Watched, There’s A Scientific Reason Why
If You Feel Like You’re Always Being Watched, There’s A Scientific Reason Why
Normal Paranoia Likely Developed To Help Us Survive

Content: the potential signals being given by other people that they may be hostile or not have our best interests at heart. A review of paranoia science in 2004 found that we possess many fine-tuned ways of detecting whether people around us are friendly: we can unconsciously "read" angry and afraid facial expressions very quickly in others, and various parts of our brains buzz with activity as they try to assess whether we should be suspicious. Humans are social animals who have lived and cooperated as groups for a very, very, very long time. As well as being able to work well with others, it stands to reason that we also carry deep-seated mechanisms to help us detect unfriendly intentions and protect ourselves and our groups. " Normal" paranoia, a sense that somebody might be out to get you, is, according to this theory, a product of an evolved threat-detection system, and when that system goes haywire, more extreme paranoia results. The extent of mild paranoia in the general population gives some insight into how it can actually be practical. A 2013 study of 8580 British people to identify paranoid thoughts found that a full 20-30 percent of the population recorded thoughts that fit on the "normal" end of the paranoid scale, including: "A consciousness of a lack of assertiveness, worries over social inferiority, worries over criticism by others, feelings that people were generally against the respondent and might use or hurt them, and a reluctance to reveal too much in case people used it in adverse ways. Ideas of reference involving the detection of hidden threats or insults were almost as common.