Women watches periferies while men focus on one object

A recent study looked at heat map images of visual patterns of men and women on a campus. The findings show that men and women have very different experience when out walking.

The study

The study led by BYU public health professor Robbie Chaney explores the distinct experiences of walking home at night for women compared to men. The researchers analyzed scatter-plots of visual patterns to see what men and women actually look at. The results showed that men tend to look straight ahead and focus on a single object while women constantly scan the surroundings.

Does it translate to other places?

It's nothing new that predators in the animal kingdom tend to have eyes closer together, looking ahead, for a greater depth of field, and predation animals tend to have a much wider field of view. It's interesting that this translates so well into humans as well and it would be very interesting to see how this replicate in different places.

Are Japanese women scanning the environment to the same extent as Swedish or Indian women? In other words, is this a biological thing or something learned from being in a potentially dangerous environment? These questions must be looked at too, before using the information to try to social engineer the problem away.