I've noticed this about America. My formative instincts about eye contact and communication come from my Russian upbringing as a small child; we left when I was 6 1/2, but by that point I had acquired (and continued to acquire) the mannerisms of my parents and close acquaintances from that culture. So, all that the author describes strikes me as strange and inhuman. I would say the Russian urban viewpoint on this is rather inspired by Western European principles - and especially French, given the Francophilia that characterised turn-of-the-century aristocracy from which many of these normative attitudes flowed downward.

I always unconsciously look at people, and very occasionally catch myself and wonder if they think I am "staring," although I generally carry a friendly expression rather than the sort of impersonal neutrality that seems to me to be what people mean when they describe "creepy" staring. I must surely be branded a "weirdo" more than I realise, though.