#Human Behavior

[smmagill]

Good things to learn in real life and good things to add to characters' back stories!

[myfandomrealitea]

Fireworks and balloons are actually a perfect example of human entitlement in terms of "my right to enjoyment outweighs the consequences and risks even to other people."

Like the environmental impact alone of fireworks and balloons are well documented as devastating but people will still threaten to kill you for suggesting only silent fireworks should be sold or that balloon releases should be recategorized as illegal.

I think the one that really gets me is when people insist on defending balloon releases in honor of the dead despite the fact that people, animals and nature over-all have been killed and suffer due to them.

[we-are-ignited]

One of my favorite “weirdly human” things is when you don’t necessarily believe in something but you still respect it/wont fuck with it.

Idk it feels so…distinctly human and it’s my favorite thing

[soulinkpoetry]

This makes so much sense.

.

[mace-waz-here]

One of the things I love about us humans is how easily we attach to things. Whether it be alive or not, we will feel such a strong surge of love for a thing that we treat it like a kid. Pets, stuffed animals, plants, even books and computers. We’re so quick to call anything our baby, or at least act like it just so long as we feel a connection with it. For the most part at least, I think we all, even if we don’t want kids, have an evolutionary parental instinct, and especially after puberty, we will see anything cute or that we love and let that instinct take over

An even less physical example of this is people latching onto characters like this. A character they particularly related to especially, if not already a kid. And we do it with things that can be very much so older than us.

[jolikmc-thoughts]

I love it when people say that doing something in a fantasy setting means that you want to do that same something in reality. If that were the case, then…

Anyone who plays Super Mario Bros. wants to curb-stomp real turtles and set things on fire.

Anyone who plays Minecraft wants to punch real trees and force real animals to breed while they watch.

Anyone who plays Call of Duty wants to do a 360°-no-scope on actual human beings.

Anyone who plays Animal Crossing wants to give a bunch of money to a real-life raccoon.

Anyone who plays Stardew Valley wants to make a real farm, kill real bugs in a real mine, and give their real friends and neighbors the same gift twice a week in hopes of becoming closer.

Yes-good. Very logical. Mm-hmm.

[she-is-ovarit]

Regularly venting about other people or judging others for mistakes or miscommunications in a negative light persistently, especially within a workplace, is a behavior that I hope becomes unlearned. It's contagious and if we catch ourselves doing it, we shouldn't lean in. It creates in-groups and out-groups, creates an environment in which everyone including those venting feel unsafe, and just generally lacks a trauma-informed perspective.

I'm not talking about venting and judgement that may be a proportionate response to sexual harassment or other exploitive behavior. But someone slacking at their job duties because they're understaffed and/or overworked, misunderstanding an email or a conversation, forgetting details mentioned in a meeting, etc.—these are all very human errors which may occur especially during the flaring up of traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, illnesses or disabilities, exhaustion, side effects of medications, and so on.

Venting, casting judgement, blaming, etc. creates distrust and lack of emotional safety, fragments human groups and teams, and contributes to a really toxic environment.

[tmarshconnors]

Graphology: The Study of Handwriting

Graphology, the study of handwriting, offers intriguing insights into personality and behavior. I find it fascinating how the way we write can reveal aspects of our character—our emotions, motivations, and even how we interact with the world.

Graphologists analyze various elements of handwriting, including size, slant, pressure, and spacing, to interpret individual traits. While some consider it a pseudoscience, the connection between our writing style and psychological characteristics is an engaging area of exploration.

Understanding graphology can enhance our self-awareness and improve communication. It offers a unique lens through which we can examine ourselves and others, providing insights into human nature that may otherwise remain hidden.

[er-cryptid]

Cultural Anthropology

Patreon

[velvetporcelain]

I knew it.

[climatecalling]

Just one-quarter of the world population is responsible for nearly three-quarters of emissions. The authors suggest the best strategy to counter overshoot would be to use the tools of the marketing, media and entertainment industries in a campaign to redefine our material-intensive socially accepted norms. “We’re talking about replacing what people are trying to signal, what they’re trying to say about themselves. Right now, our signals have a really high material footprint –our clothes are linked to status and wealth, their materials sourced from all over the world, shipped to south-east Asia most often and then shipped here, only to be replaced by next season’s trends. The things that humans can attach status to are so fluid, we could be replacing all of it with things that essentially have no material footprint – or even better, have an ecologically positive one.” The Merz Institute runs an overshoot behaviour lab where they work on interventions to address overshoot. One of these identifies “behavioural influencers” such as screenwriters, web developers and algorithm engineers, all of whom are promoting certain social norms and could be working to rewire society relatively quickly and harmlessly by promoting a new set of behaviours. The paper discusses the enormous success of the work of the Population Media Center, an initiative that creates mainstream entertainment to drive behaviour change on population growth and even gender violence. Fertility rates have declined in the countries in which the centre’s telenovelas and radionovelas have aired.

[defleftist]

Last week I had to go to the ER due to an unfortunate run in with a bat and worries about potential exposure to rabies. This trip to the ER was a fascinating anthropological study of human behavior while under stress. Maybe the most noteworthy thing I noticed was a man sat near me in the waiting room who brought with him a book called Classical Christianity. He read the book briefly before casting it aside to watch videos on his phone. After an hour or so of waiting (it was a very busy night in the ER we all had to wait a long time) he jumped up, book in tow, and went up to the front desk where he proceeded to yell and flip off the front desk worker before storming out of the ER in a huff. Just saying, that didn’t seem like very classical Christian behavior my dude. But hey, I’m just a godless heathen who would never dare to treat overworked and underpaid healthcare workers like that.

[donotdestroy]

"Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's idealized self-image and attributes."

— Sigmund Freud

[red-umbrella-811]

Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults.

“Awe—a positive emotion elicited when in the presence of vast things not immediately understood—reduces self-focus, promotes social connection, and fosters prosocial actions”

Participants were invited to take 8 minute “awe walks” where they were given an orientation experience awe (compared to a control group who weren’t prompted towards awe but still took the walks.

“Compared with participants who took control walks, those who took awe walks…reported greater joy and prosocial positive emotions during their walks and displayed increasing smile intensity over the study. Outside of the walk context, participants who took awe walks reported greater increases in daily prosocial positive emotions and greater decreases in daily distress over time.”