Compulsive People-Watching as Vicarious-Living Wrong Attractor: The Observation Architecture, Direct-Participation Foreclosure Basin, and the Return to Calibrated Active Engagement

Compulsive people-watching is defined formally within the displacement framework as a wrong attractor: a stable behavioural configuration that mimics engagement with social life while systematically foreclosing direct participation in it. We introduce S^0 as the calibrated ground state of a social agent—the condition of proportionate, responsive engagement with one's own relational field—and define displacement D() as the signed deviation from S^0 along a phenomenological coordinate.

The accumulated displacement = D()\,dt quantifies the cost load carried by the agent over time. In this framework, compulsive people-watching constitutes a wrong attractor W characterised by an internally self-reinforcing observation loop, a low-cost perception surface that suppresses the motivational gradient toward action, and a progressive deepening of the direct-participation foreclosure basin.

Nine formal propositions (P_1–P_9) characterise the attractor geometry, the loop dynamics, the cost structure, and the exit conditions. We analyse the observation architecture mechanistically, map the foreclosure basin's topographic features, and specify the return path to calibrated active engagement. The framework yields actionable exit criteria and situates compulsive people-watching within the broader taxonomy of vicarious-living displacement syndromes.