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No, they would know by the angle of your eyes if you were staring that low.

Looking intensely at someone's lips is at times the prelude to a kiss. I think this ambiguity makes them uncomfortable.

I always thought it depended on how closely seated you are to the other person? The closer we are (e.g. seated next to each other over dinner), the higher the chances of the aforementioned reaction.

That actually helps if you're hard of hearing, or if the person has an accent that you have trouble with. The visual data from what their mouth is doing helps you interpret the audio data. (You don't have to know lipreading for this to work, BTW - though true lip reading would help more...)

That actually explains a lot because I am, in fact, hard of hearing on one ear since early childhood!

EDIT: typo

I also find I often look at the mouth of the person I'm speaking with but don't encounter the responses you have. Not sure why.

I swear I’m not looking at their chest!

Hey! My lips are up here!

Oh, sorry! Ummm…were you saying something?