I am man btw

Recently I was observing people and noticed how frequently guys look at women passing by. I was curious about this and it led me to writing my thoughts down. Curious on other people's opinions.

We do things because something is gained by doing that. So why we look can also be framed as what do we gain by looking. I have listed the points I can think of and it's critiques on why I think they are invalid/valid below:

• To find out if they return eye contact: One of the best outcomes of looking is when eye contact is returned and maybe a smile as this may be an indicator of interest. In my experience this is extremely rare. After finding out how unlikely this by looking countless times in one's life we still continue to look sometimes. I admit that even though this chance is low we are biologically programmed to have hope that it is higher than it really is (delulu) but I am not sure how significant this is. This leads me to believe that this point is invalid as it is not worth the energy, time and the risk of coming off creepy for the negligible chance of reciprocation

• dopamine / biological drive (eg. genetic): You get dopamine (the drive to do something without which life becomes unenjoyable and depressing therefore maybe it could be said as "joy") when you look at an attractive person is this reason why we do it? Quantity matters, small dopamine activities do not matter as much. How much joy is gained by looking at an attractive person? In my opinion not much, you're only looking at the person for a few seconds max it cannot be fulfilling enough to make looking this prevalent. Also when looking if it does not lead to eye-contact (very common) it is sometimes followed by a tiny amount of sadness which makes me question if it is worth it. I do not believe this point (by itself) is valid.

• Reading Body Language: (aka people watching?) while it is an acceptable answer sometimes, it is more effective to sit from far and be able read a person for a longer time. Therefore it is an excuse and it does not explain why attractive women are looked at more?

• Judging Attractiveness: (curiousity?) this writing was made to find what you gain by looking (as that is why one looks). what is gained by judging? what is the "score" used for? not much I think this reason is invalid

• Social Interaction: Humans are social creatures who want to interact with people of high perceived value genetically as it helps them survive since you cannot get to know someone that quickly we can only base this value from appearance therefore attractive people are valued more compared to other strangers. We are unable (or don't have the time) to interact with these people in deeper manner (eg. verbally) so we have to resort to visual (often one-sided) interactions, opposite gender is valued more for obvious biological reasons. Aka it allows people to "socialize" with many other high valued people. This point could be further proved as valid if lonely (fewer daily real interactions) people look at strangers more. This point in combination with a little bit of the dopamine part is the answer I think.

This was just my random thoughts I wrote since I was bored. There probably are a bunch of flaws (I hope you point them out). After writing this I find out there is not much gained by looking and I think this will reduce how much I do it. This is not meant to be serious or me complaining or accusing anyone of being at fault