OK, so I had to start the counter-thread to this one. I kept thinking of too many things to add but were only behaviors.
One of the creepiest people I ever knew, he had extremely erect posture, and his arms didn’t swing when he walked. He hardly ever blinked, and he was a little bit monotone. He also made very little noise when he moved around, and would frequently enter a room and not say anything to let people know he was there. I was so relieved when I didn’t have to be around him anymore.
There’s another person, now, who I don’t really like to be near, for the creepiness factor. They laugh unusually loud and in an unnatural sounding way. And everytime they enter the room, they are already chuckling. ANd they never have something funny to say to explain the laughter… It is very unnerving.
Long ago in my misspent youth, I worked late into the night at a lakeside pub and then headed into the heart of downtown where my Mom lived at the time. By the time I got back to the main drag it was crawling with drunken hammerheads pouring out of the downtown bars. I was a young and small girl and my Mom was alarmed about me having to walk all of a block and a half in from the main street to her condo, she always wanted me to hail a cab! Her fears were not without merit, but it took longer to hail a cab than to just walk so I chose walking instead.
I developed my own technique, I would linger out on the well lit main street till I saw someone I found ‘safe-ish, large-ish’ looking who was headed my way. Then I would fall in, lock step, a few metres behind them. If they slowed, I slowed, always maintaining the same distance. It worked quite well, I felt comfortable, there was always someone within earshot and usually they were unaware they were effectively my escort.
So one night, I fell in behind a large black man walking alone. I must have been closer than usual as he first sped up, with me in step, then slowed, again with me in step behind him. As it turns out he went right into the condo complex and I into the elevator behind him. At which point he turned to me sharply and asked if I was following him. I explained myself and we shared a laugh.
So it turns out that all 5’, 99 pounds of me, unexplainedly following behind was enough to unnerve a 6’ tall, 200 pound man in the dark of night. My friends found the story quite unbelievable so unimposing was I, but it happened just as I have explained it, I swear.
I don’t think you can really define creepy behaviour, too much spidey sense involved.
Staring for unnaturally long periods of time. My roommate stares at me when we are on the subway because she doesn’t want to look around at everyone and feel like she is invading their space or whatever, but she freaks the hell out of me when she does it! She is not creepy in any way and I love living with her, but on the subway she makes me feel uncomfortable as hell.
I’ll second the staring, particularly if there’s a vacant look in the eyes, or an intense, desperate expression.
Plus, being at social gatherings and not talking to anyone, just sitting alone in the corner. Let me explain, lest shy folks wonder if they’re creeping people out. Before we started dating, I found my ex-boyfriend to be really creepy. He’d come to parties with his roommate and then sit alone all night and not talk to anyone, even his roommate, or people he’d already been introduced to. I’ll often fall silent at parties and listen to others’ conversations instead of talking, but this is after I’ve made my rounds and chatted with my friends, and it usually doesn’t last long because one conversation or other will soon turn to a subject I find more interesting and I’ll jump in. And even at parties where I’m being shy, I can at least talk to the person I came with, or see someone I know to chat with. But just sitting all night in the corner, kinda creepy. (He got less creepy after he started talking, obviously, it just took about 3 months before we had our first conversation. He was just shy and not talkative in general, but came off as creepy for a while).
Being totally out of place with no good reason to be there. Middle-aged guy in Dockers at a punk rock show, not escorting a young teen. Scruffy-looking guy sitting at a park watching the kids, with no kid of his own. Or, as in the thread that inspired this, hanging out at a laundromat with no laundry.
Walks can be creepy, the hunched-over shuffle can definitely be unnerving, especially when combined with poor hygiene or unkempt hair.
A lot of what is or can be creepy isn’t necessarily creepy in itself, but if several behaviors are combined, or if a behavior and a creepy appearance are combined, definitely makes someone creepy.
After I posted this thread What Makes What makes “the creepy guy”… creepy? I realized that it’s usually how people move that I find creepy. That guy would (He’s still there, but he’s not so creepy any more) would hug the walls when going around the room, even if it meant going behind people’s chairs rather than the wide aisles meant for travel throughout the space.
Oh! Invasion of personal space is often creepy. I know that the actual distance for personal space varies between cultures (it’s something like 3 feet for Americans, but considerably less for the French IIRC), but cultural differences aside, if someone gets in my personal space it squicks me out.
Lack of boundry awareness - physical and emotional. A person who leans in too close or touches you when you don’t want it. Someone who you meet and they immediately let you know about the sex with twins they want to have or how their ex-husband cheated on them. Even bigger, lack of emotional boundries that really impact you - someone who wants to get together Sataurday, who you barely know, is very insistant and when you say no, wants to know what else you’ll be doing, what the details are and judges your excuses.