Why I stare at people?

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I know a couple of reasons why I stare at people.

1. I was always friendly when I was a kid, so I stare sometimes at a distance if I can't quite make out a person, I am trying to see if I know that person or not. I don't want to be rude and ignore them. So if I stare and try to make them out, maybe it is acknowledgement that I am saying hello. Normally it ends up that I just spend several seconds staring at a person because them I caught in the awkward situation where I don't know if I should wave, half wave.
( I have this weird thing where I might possibly run into someone I know. I rarely end up bumping to someone I know at random but I always try to scope out people just to make sure).

2. It is kind of related to #1. I stare at a person because I don't know if I should say hello or goodbye or wave (this is at a close distance). I get caught up in "What is pi?" moment and my brain just locks up until eventually I just stare into the ground and walk away.

3. I stare because...sometimes there is an attractive girl in the distance and I want to check her out. But I don't do it right so I end up staring too long.

That basically covers it.

I feel like a deer staring at headlights right before I get ran over when I stare.

Why do you think you do it? I think it could all be summed up with nervousness. You see a person, they see you. What do you do? Do you look down? Keep staring? It is a weird feeling.

I guess I could stare at the ground and walk around because I can't make good eye contact but that would look weirder and I would run into walls.

It depends on my anxiety levels. If my anxiety is high I do tend to glance away and then look back... Although sometimes when my anxiety is high I lock on their eyes and it's like I can't look away. I never really thought about what causes the difference. Hmm... I think when I perceive the other person as a potential threat I lock on them. When I just have some general anxiety I glance away.

When I'm not having anxiety I keep on staring. I think I do this because in my own way it's how I socialize. I feel somehow connected to the other person. It's like... I'm merging with them.

There are people out there that although I've never actually met them, they don't know me at all, I feel this connection to. I don't know... maybe I'm just weird.

I use to stare at people faces when I'm on the suburban train or in the stop. I used to stare at the faces of co-workers while they were having a conversation in my presence, in hope I could participate in it, but it turned out most of time I couldn't. I guess it might have been unpleasant to them. Now I do it less since I know I haven't got too much chance to participate in those kind of conversations properly, whatever I would do.

In hallways, when I meet one of my co-workers, I briefly look at his/her face and say hello. I add the short forename if I can recall. In the past I was much more awkward, I took a short glance at their faces, and looked down at the ground, mostly without saying anything.

Walking on the street, I can miss literally anybody passing by me. When I hear a loud "Hello!", so I could hear it, I've learned to answer immediately with another hello plus the optional name, instead of staring stupefied in embarrassment and surprise...