Bayesian Recognition and the Inverse Charlie Chaplin Principle

So I bumped into Deepa at a coffee shop this evening. And she almost refused to recognise me. It turned out to be a case of Bayesian Recognition having gone wrong. And then followed in quick succession by a case of Inverse Charlie Chaplin Principle.

So I was sitting at this coffee shop in Jayanagar meeting an old acquaintance, and Deepa walked in, along with a couple of other people. It took me a while to recognise her, but presently I did, and it turned out that by then she was seated at a table such that we were directly facing each other, with some thirty feet between us (by now I was positive it was her).

I looked at her for a bit, waiting for her to recognise me. She didn’t. I got doubts on whether it was her, and almost took out my phone to message and ask her if it was indeed her. But then I decided it was a silly thing to do, and I should go for it the natural way. So I looked at her again, and looked at her for so long that if she were a stranger she would have thought I was leching at her (so you know that I was quite confident now that it was indeed Deepa). No response.

I started waving, with both arms. She was now looking at me, but past me. I continued waving, and I don’t know what my old acquaintance who I was talking to was thinking by now. And finally a wave back. And we got both got up, and walked towards each other, and started talking.

The Charlie Chaplin principle comes from this scene in a Charlie Chaplin movie which I can’t remember right now where he is standing in front of a statue of the king. Everyone who goes past him salutes him, and he feels high that everyone is saluting him, while everyone in effect is saluting the statue of the king behind him.

Thus, the “Charlie Chaplin Principle” refers to the case where you think someone is smiling at you or waving at you or saluting you, and it turns out that they are doing that to someone who is collinear with you and them. Thus, you are like Charlie Chaplin, stupidly feeling happy about this person smiling/waving/saluting at you while it is someone else that they are addressing.

Like all good principles, this one too has an inverse – which we shall call the “Inverse Charlie Chaplin Principle”. In this one, someone is smiling or waving or blowing kisses at you, and you assume that the gesture is intended to someone else who is collinear with the two of you. Thus, you take no notice of the smile or wave or blown kiss, and get on with life, with the likelihood that you are pissing off the person who is smiling or waving or blowing kisses at you!

Both these effects have happened to me a few times, and I’ve been on both sides of both effects. And an instance of the Inverse principle happened today.

Deepa claimed that she initially failed to recognise me because she assumed that I’m in Spain, and that thus there’s no chance I would be in Jayanagar this evening (clearly she reads this blog, but not so regularly!). Thus, she eliminated me from her search space and was unable to fit my face to anyone else she knows.

Then when I started waving, the Inverse Charlie Chaplin Principle took over. Bizarrely (there was no one between us in the cafe save the acquaintance I was talking to, and I wouldn’t be waving wildly at someone at the same table for two as me; and Deepa was sitting with her back to the wall of the cafe so I presumably could not have been waving at anyone else behind her), she assumed that I was waving to someone else (or so that was her claim), and that it took time for her to realise that it was her that I was actually waving to!

Considering how Bayesian Recognition can throw you off, I’m prepared to forgive her. But I didn’t imagine that Bayesian Recognition would throw her off so much that it would cause an Inverse Charlie Chaplin Effect on her!

Oh, I must mention that I have grown a stubble (the razor I took on my trip to Europe was no good), and that she mentioned about not wearing her glasses today. Whatever!