The Lost Art of People Watching

'Inviting and exquisitely perceptive' Kieran Setiya, author of Life is Hard

The fascinating practice of people watching is beginning to disappear. Whether we’re exchanging messages with absent others or rushing through negotiating the practicalities of daily life, we are often too busy with our devices to notice those around us. But what do we miss when they all go unseen?

Whether in lecture halls or offices, cafés or courtyards, widely-acclaimed observer of daily life Professor Joe Moran has spent many hours watching people – and he’s learnt that we can’t fully understand others unless we really look at them properly. In The Lost Art of People Watching, he shows us how this uniquely human pastime can teach us to pay attention to the things we normally overlook, like the 'baton signals' we use when we want to emphasise our speech, or the outdated gestures we use to signal paying the bill and asking the time -- and thus learn new things about ourselves.

Along the way, he introduces famous people-watching sociologists, anthropologists, artists and writers, from Erving Goffman and Desmond Morris to Alice Neel and Virginia Woolf. Through Moran’s own ‘field research’, in train stations and art galleries parks and offices, at house parties and restaurants, he reveals the hidden strangeness of human behaviour, from the unique language of couples to workplace rituals, and the unlikely things that unite us.

In a digital-driven world, The Lost Art of People Watching encourages us to be more curious about those around us, about our quirks and our similarities – and shows us how our lives will be richer for it.