Fun Facts about Human Behaviour
Fun Facts about Human Behaviour
Source: Human Behavior Patterns
Humans generally experience the world and act accordingly across different situations. Behaviour is everything we do or act in our daily life. You may think that it is so common that you are very familiar with it. Let’s see if you know some of these fun facts about human behaviour?
1) Dressing choices may be related to your mood.
Have you chosen what you’d like to wear today? I want to wear skirt today…I want to wear pants today…My dressing theme for today is summer…Today my dressing concept is white colour. If you have those experiences, are you aware that your dressing choices are related to your mood?
Colour of clothing choices may show the mood of the people. Each colour may have different meanings for it. For example, red may be associated with passion and romance and blue may relate with calm and peaceful (Zephyr, 2019). You might choose your clothing according to colour to enhance your mood. Let’s say today you need to go for a formal event, you may be more likely to choose black colour clothes which are better able to portray the serious look of yours.
On the other hand, dressing well will also relate to your mood. If you woke up late today and you just randomly grabbed any shirt and pants to wear, you may have the chance of choosing the pair of shirt and pants which mismatch with each other. When you walk to school and see yourself in the mirror, you may think that “OMG, it is a terrible combination!” You may also worry about what other people think about your attire. Your mood may probably be very down for that day and you want to go back home as soon as possible.
Source: Giphy
2) Money can buy happiness, but there is a limit.
It is often said that money can buy happiness. If I have a lot of money, I need not worry about my life and I can enjoy my life. If I have a lot of money, I can buy whatever I want. A lot of people have dreamed of one day he or she wakes up with a lot of money. Many people may wonder how wonderful it would be if that dream comes true one day. How about you? What will you do with a lot of money? Will you spend it on yourself? Friends? Family? or perhaps a stranger?
However, can money really buy happiness? Yes, but…there is a limit. There is a research which said that the happiness level of Americans increases as the amount of their annual income increases until it reaches $75, 000 (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010). In other words, the happiness level of people will not increase further even if they earn higher than $75, 000 yearly. People may probably get more annoyed when they have too much money.
3) People tend to follow what others do if they are uncertain.
I believe that many people have the experience that when you suddenly go to a new environment, you would unconsciously follow what other people do. It is because you are not sure what to do and you do not want other people to think that you are strange. For instance, you go to a place and you see everyone clapping their hands, you will subconsciously follow their behaviours despite not knowing what the claps are for. In your mind, you may probably be thinking, “Huh, what happened? Why am I following them?”
This phenomenon is called social validation, whereby people tend to conform to a group and follow along their behaviours to try to fit in when they are in a new environment (Shubhangi, 2019). Social validation happens more frequently than we could imagine in our social life, especially when we need to buy something. That being said, when it comes to buying behaviour, people are more likely to opt for a famous brand or the brand with high ratings.
4) Yawn contagion is correlated with empathy.
Many people had already known that yawning is contagious. That is if you watch a person yawning, you will then be yawning too. The reason behind this is still a mystery. Nevertheless, people find that it may be correlated with empathy. One of the possible explanations for it is that they discovered the age whereby contagious yawning behaviour developed is about the same age when empathy is developed as well (i.e. around the age of 4) (Greenwald, 2018).
Moreover, there is also research indicating that people with low levels of empathy are less likely to catch yawns (Rundle, Vaughn, & Stanford, 2015). In addition to that, it was also found that people with psychopathic personality traits or autism may have low levels of empathy, and as predicted, researchers then also discovered that they are less likely to yawn (Helt, Eigsti, Snyder, & Fein, 2010; Usui et al., 2013).
References
Greenwald, M. (2018). That is why yawns are contagious. Retrieved from https://bestlifeonline.com/why-yawns-are-contagious/
Helt, M. S., Eigsti, I. M., Snyder, P. J., & Fein, D. A. (2010). Contagious yawning in autistic and typical development. Child Development, 81(5), 1620-1631. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01495.x
Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(38), 16489-16493. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1011492107
Rundle, B. K., Vaughn, V. R., & Stanford, M. S. (2015). Contagious yawning and psychopathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 33-37. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.025
Shubhangi Srinivasan (2019). Social validation- decoding the psychology behind it. Retrieved from https://www.feedough.com/decoding-the-psychology-behind-social-validation/
Usui, S., Senju, A., Kikuchi, Y., Akechi, H., Tojo, Y., Osanai, H., & Hasegawa, T. (2013). Presence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research and Treatment, 2013. DOI: 10.1155/2013/971686
Zephyr (2019). Colors and mood: how the colors you wear affect you. Retrieved from https://www.collegefashion.net/fashion-tips/colors-and-mood-how-the-colors-you-wear-affect-you/
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An Chi San
An Chi is currently an undergraduate psychology student at HELP University. She is interested in understanding the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of people. She also hopes to further her study in the master’s program so that she can use her knowledge to help people who are facing mental health problems.
