“He keeps looking at me from a distance and I’m not really sure why. Does he like me but doesn’t have the courage to approach me or is he just a creep?”
You’re probably in a situation now where a man is staring at you from a distance and you don’t know whether he intends to say hello. He simply keeps looking at you, even though he’s aware that you’ve noticed his behavior.
This will make you feel uncomfortable since you don’t know why he’s doing it. If he approached you and got to know you instead, you’d feel much more comfortable.
The only thing you want to find out right now is why this man keeps looking in your direction. Honestly, you already like this guy but you don’t know whether he feels the same way about you.
He’s watching you but that’s all you’re getting from him. He’s never bothered to greet you or introduce himself which doesn’t make any sense but at the same time, his eyes are fixated on you and they’re obviously not going anywhere.
So, it’s only natural that you want to find out why he keeps acting this way. That’s why I’m going to give you all of the answers you’re looking for.
“He keeps looking at me from a distance.” 17 reasons why he does that
There are many reasons why a guy may decide to stare at you without making effort to approach you. Some of them are positive and they’ll give you a glimpse of hope for your future. Others will probably make you realize you’re expecting too much from him.
So, keep on reading if you want to find out all of the possible explanations for this guy’s behavior.
1. He’s attracted to you
First things first – this guy probably finds you attractive, which is why he keeps looking at you from a distance. He probably spotted you some time ago and he realized that he likes you. But for one of various reasons, he doesn’t have the guts to approach you.
He probably thinks you’re good-looking and he would like to have a chance with you. But before he makes a move, he’d rather look at you from a safe distance to gather up the courage.
2. He’s afraid of rejection
When you catch a guy staring at you from a distance, the chances are that he likes you but is afraid of rejection. He would love to get to know you better but he’s not sure whether you’d like to do the same.
What if he approaches you and you decide to turn him down? He would feel disappointed and his self-esteem would suffer significantly. Making the first move isn’t easy, especially when you don’t know how the other person feels about you.
If this guy has never had the chance to talk to you, then he probably doesn’t know how you would react if he were to approach you. So he would rather take some time before he makes a move rather than rush things.
He likes you a lot and doesn’t want to ruin his chances with you. And if he approached you unprepared, that’s exactly what could happen.
3. He’s trying to figure out what kind of a person you are
“He keeps looking at me from a distance but he hasn’t even tried to introduce himself. What’s the reason for that? Could it be that he doesn’t like me? But then again, why does he keep staring at me if that’s the case?”
When a guy keeps staring at you, the most probable cause is that he likes you. Still, there can be many other reasons why he still hasn’t approached you and the first one is that he’s trying to figure out what kind of a person you are.
From what he can see, he knows for sure that he’s attracted to you. However, he has no idea about your personality since he’s never had a conversation with you.
Then again, if he’s afraid of rejection, he’ll first want to find more about you before finally making the first move. And that could be the exact reason why he keeps looking at you.
He’s trying to figure out the way you treat other people. He’s observing your reactions and behavior when talking to others.
This will allow him to find out a bit more about you and that way, he’ll know what he’s getting himself into once he finally decides to say hi. Even though he hasn’t talked to you yet, he’ll still have the impression that he knows you since he’s been watching you for a while.
4. He’s trying to flirt with you
Before they make any other moves, a lot of guys will first start flirting with you. It’s their way of getting your attention and checking whether you’re interested in them.
But to flirt with someone doesn’t necessarily mean to approach that person and hit on them. There are many other ways to do so and establishing eye contact is certainly one of them.
So, when a guy keeps looking at you from a distance, there’s a chance that he’s trying to flirt with you. And if he does that, he’ll make sure to give you a flirtatious smile so he successfully gets the message across. Then if you smile back at him, he’ll take that as a sign that you like him as well and that he should approach you.
He thinks it’s easier to test the waters this way. It saves him from wasting his time on you just to find out you’re not interested or already have a boyfriend.
Flirting with his eyes from a safe distance allows him to try and find out your feelings without even approaching you. So, if you turn away from him without giving him a smile, he’ll simply move on to the next girl.
5. He’s waiting for you to approach him first
The world has changed and it’s no longer a rule that a man should approach a woman first. Honestly, some modern men even expect women to make the first move.
This guy could be doing the same. He’s been looking at you from a distance for a while and he expects you to consider that as a green light.
He’s shown you that he’s interested and now it’s up to you to make the decision of whether you’re attracted to him. If you like what you see, then you should go over and introduce yourself.
He’s already revealed how he feels about you and now, it’s up to you to give him feedback. It’s your turn to do whatever you want. So if you like him then you should introduce yourself and if you don’t feel attracted to him, then simply ignore him.
6. He finds you beautiful
A guy can keep looking at you from a distance simply because he finds you beautiful. He’s mesmerized by your appearance and he can’t take his eyes off of you.
From the moment he saw you, he couldn’t stop staring at you. Right now, he’s aware that he’s crossed a line and that he should explain himself to you but he simply can’t stop looking your way.
You’re probably the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and that’s the reason why his eyes are fixated on your body.
7. He feels intimidated by you
A guy may like everything about you but still not be able to find the courage to approach you. Why? Because he feels intimidated by you.
He’s probably been observing you for a while and he got the impression that you’re a strong and independent woman. To him, that sounds like way more than what he’s used to dealing with.
He would love to get to know you better and maybe even try his luck with you but he doesn’t know whether he can do that. He feels like you’ll reject him the moment he says hi to you.
Everything about you alludes to the fact that you don’t need a man and that’s why he doesn’t see a point in introducing himself. He doesn’t want to waste his time approaching you only to hear you saying you’re not interested.
In that case, he would rather keep looking at you from a distance than walk up to you just to hear you reject him. And in his mind, you look exactly like the kind of person who wouldn’t even bother getting to know him.
8. He’s a shy guy
A shy guy won’t have the guts to approach a woman. No matter how much he likes you, he won’t know how to get close to you and let you know that.
If your secret admirer is just like this, then he’ll choose to look at you from a distance instead of walking straight up to you. He’s just afraid of what could happen next, once he introduces himself.
The chances are that he’s bad at starting conversations and doesn’t know how to keep the communication going. He doesn’t know what he could say to you so you don’t run away from him the moment he opens his mouth.
Dating a shy guy is hard but getting him to approach you and admit his feelings to you is even harder. He doesn’t know how to do that so he instead stays at a safe distance.
If you’re still not sure whether he’s too shy to approach you then you can always test him. Simply keep looking at him the moment you spot him staring in your direction.
If he immediately looks away and his cheeks get red, you’ve hit the jackpot. The chances are that he’s not very skilled at flirting and that’s why doesn’t think it’s a good idea to get closer to you.
9. He’s overly confident
When he keeps looking at you from a distance, it could also mean he’s overly confident. You may ask yourself how that can be the case when you don’t see him walking toward you, as if he’s so confident, he’ll approach you and introduce himself, right?
But the thing is that he’s full of himself so he doesn’t think he should be the one to make the first move. Instead, he wants you to approach him.
He thinks so highly of himself that doesn’t feel it’s his duty to chase after women. If they like them, they can feel free to try their luck with him.
Even when he likes someone, he doesn’t bother making his move. He simply lets a woman know he’s interested in her by giving her prolonged eye contact and possibly even smiling at her. After that, she’s the one who needs to decide whether she’s going to lose him by not making a move or if she’s going to use her chance.
This guy could be doing the same. He’s self-absorbed and doesn’t think it’s up to him to introduce himself. But still, he’s going to give you the green light so you can do so if you want.
10. He thinks you’re out of his league
“He’s a great-looking guy and I feel attracted to him but still, he only keeps looking at me from a distance. I don’t understand why he doesn’t come over and introduce himself.”
Well, the reason for this behavior could be that this man thinks you’re out of his league. It doesn’t really matter whether he’s handsome and looks like a million dollars, he can still think of himself as not good enough for you.
When he looks at you, he sees a woman who can have anyone she wants. He probably thinks you snap your fingers and men come running into your arms.
He probably has self-esteem issues which is why he doesn’t think he’s capable of winning you over. To him, you look like a woman he could never have, so he would rather save his energy than introduce himself to you, as he’s sure that you wouldn’t even want to talk to him.
That’s probably how he feels about you and the main reason why he’s keeping his distance from you. He sees himself as an average guy while you’re exceptional, which is why he thinks it’s pointless to approach you.
All of the previous reasons have one thing in common – this guy has feelings for you. It’s obvious that he likes you but he hasn’t felt ready to introduce himself to you.
But the following reasons are a bit more neutral and maybe even negative. So, if you like this guy and you’re wondering why he keeps looking at you from a distance, you’re not going to like these explanations.
11. You remind him of someone else
There’s a possibility that he’s staring at you simply because you remind him of someone else. The moment you caught his attention, he realized that you look familiar.
At first, he’ll probably try to figure out whether he confused you for someone else. Once he realizes you’re not the person he knows but you simply look a lot like them, he’ll look away.
So, wait for his reaction and see whether he actually looks the other way once he figures out you’re not someone he knows. Then it’ll be obvious that the only reason why he was staring at you was confusion.
12. He heard a rumor about you
Another reason you’re probably not going to like is that he heard a rumor about you. Maybe somebody told him something about you and now when he sees you, he stares in disbelief as he can’t believe the words he heard. Or it could be that he remembered what they told him the moment he laid his eyes on you.
He’ll probably question his friends to see whether you were the one they were talking about. So if you see him in company and he awkwardly whispers something to his pals after looking in your direction, then you can be sure that they’re talking about you.
Maybe there’s some gossip going around about you and that’s why he reacts the way he does when he sees you.
13. He’s looking through you
When a guy keeps looking at you from a distance, there’s a possibility that he’s not actually looking at you; he’s simply looking through you.
Maybe he got lost in his thoughts and he doesn’t even feel present in his own skin. He’s somewhere outside of his body, thinking about different things that are bothering him.
At the same time, his eyes got locked with yours, which is the reason why you feel like he’s staring at you. But the truth is that he’s not even aware of it.
If you want to find out the truth, then simply move a few feet away from your current spot. If he still keeps staring in the same direction then it’s obvious that he’s zoned out but if his eyes choose to follow your body, then there could be another reason why.
14. He wants to make you feel uncomfortable
The reason why he keeps looking at you from a distance could be that he wants to make you feel uncomfortable. If this is true, then there’s a chance that you already had a conflict or misunderstanding with this guy. Now, he’s giving you payback for the previous situation you were in.
He knows that you won’t feel comfortable if he keeps staring at you and that’s the exact reason why he keeps doing so. Honestly, he doesn’t care about the way you feel. He simply wants to get revenge for himself.
If you think that this could be the case, then try to remember whether you ever found yourself in an awkward situation with this man. Maybe you accidentally ended up in a fight or you made a negative comment about something he did which made him uncomfortable.
If that’s the case then you have yourself your answer as to why he’s been looking at you from a distance.
15. He’s a creep
When he keeps looking at you without the intention of stopping, there’s a chance that you’re dealing with a creep. He’s a douche who’s incapable of winning your heart and that’s why he’s acting that way.
His behavior will make you feel uncomfortable, as his gaze will go up and down your body. And even if you don’t give him a reason to stare, he still won’t bother to look away.
When you see him acting this way, feel free to approach him and tell him what’s on your mind. Let him know that he can’t treat you this way since he’s being disrespectful and rude. And if he doesn’t stop right away, you can always decide to give him the same treatment.
16. He’s trying to manipulate you
Prolonged eye contact is often seen as a way of manipulation so when a guy keeps looking at you from a distance, there’s a chance that he’s trying to take control over you. Maybe he wants you to feel subordinate or small compared to him or it could be that he’s trying to intimidate you with his behavior.
If the guy you’re talking about is someone you secretly like but never had an actual conversation with, then it could mean that he’s seen through your feelings. Now, he’s probably trying to take advantage of the situation and he’ll do that by keeping eye contact until he sees you’re uncomfortable.
You may have the idea that he likes you but as soon as he gets what he wants from you, he’ll be out of your life. Then you’ll end up heartbroken for letting your walls down for a man who never even cared about you.
17. He’s trying to appear dominant
Similar to trying to manipulating you, a guy may decide to keep looking at you from a distance because he wants to come off as dominant. He wants you to think of him as someone who’s way above you, someone you can’t even imagine yourself being with.
After this, he may give you a chance to get to know him better and maybe even insinuate that he likes you. He’ll act this way because he wants you to conform to his wishes and do as he says. But the moment he gets everything he’s looking for, he’ll simply abandon you like you meant nothing to him.
Appearing dominant allows him to gain control over you for as long as he wants but once he gets tired of you, he’ll simply walk away.