When you and another car come to an unmarked intersection in a residential area, and the other car gets there a few seconds before you do and stops, what do you do?

Totally unmarked ?Like no signage at all? no light, no stop sign, no yield sign?
The other driver is treating it like a four way stop,which is safe, and probably expecting other drivers to do the same,and if they do the first guy should then go, but since no signage at all I guess it’s a free for all, and the first driver was still playing safe to see if the other driver would stop or just plow right through.

No signs at all. Nanda. Zip. Nothing. You don’t see too many stop lights or yield signs in 20 MPH residential areas any way, and in this town what stop signs there are are unpredictable and random.

I’d treat it like a 4-way stop.
They stopped.
I stop.
They go.
I go.

Why guess whether both drivers have seen the other driver? Stopping acknowledges that.

The car on the right has the right of way. If the car you mentioned is directly across from you, slow down and proceed with caution. Through traffic has the right of way.
That being said, Johnston’s Law must always be taken into account. (Johnston’s Law states that Murphy’s Law is ALWAYS in effect and it can affect YOU! So always be prepared! Always expect the unexpected.)

It depends upon whether they are to my right or left. I still follow the old-fashioned “right has the right of way”

If they’re directly opposite then I’ll also stop on the assumption that they will be going momentarily. Then I’ll resume going.

I figure it only costs a few extra seconds and I’m not usually in that big of a rush.

“They stopped. I stop. They go. I go.” Sounds perfectly logicial, but it never works that way @ibstubro, at least not here. It’s more like:

They stop. I stop. They sit. And sit. I go.

Or,

They stop. I stop. They sit. And they sit. The wave me on through That annoys the living fuck out of me. YOU WERE HERE FIRST SO FUCKING GO ALREADY! So I go.

Or

They stop. I stop. They sit. And sit. So I start to go. They start to go. We stop again. See above.

Actually, what I’ve found that works the best is They stop. I stop. They don’t go. They sit. And sit. So I look totally away from them. For some reason, that makes them go.

Or, best of all, they stop, I proceed with caution but don’t stop. Done deal.

On the other side, I stop and look totally away from the oncoming car. For some reason, they go on through.

It is so counter intuitive to me that they go when they think I’m not paying attention. But that’s how it works here.

Well, I have to agree that it annoys the living fuck out of me when people sit there when it’s their turn, then wave me on, like they’re being polite. If they’d just taken their turn, we’d both be a block closer to our destination.

However, not being willing to be at fault in an accident, I still stop if they are.
If I lived in a subdivision and it happened a lot, I admit that I might adopt your practice of driving on through. I hope you smile and wave, like you appreciate them staying out of your way.
:-)

I acknowledge them. And folks who I stop for acknowledge me. It’s the ones who bonzeii blindly, who never even saw you, those are the folks who piss me off. They think that no matter where they are, they have the right of way, period.
However, I’m never taken by surprise because I’m looking when I approach the intersections.