My little one is very distant towards adults. He's gotten used to them wanting to captivate his attention, to selfishly feel good about themselves, and I suspect he senses that. "He's so cute", they'd say. I force myself to smile politely, and he ignores them in a way that makes me sometimes feel embarrassed... With children, it's the complete opposite. He doesn't need more than 5 minutes to start playing with them...