21 March 2007

Strange You; Strange Me

Are you observant? Ever noticed how we sometimes tend to have very strange behaviours?

Take for instance whenever in a conversation, and there's a mention of time, we'll look at our watch/clock even though it was entirely unnecessary. Example...

"I'm leaving office now, will be there in.... say... (looks at watch)... 15 mins."

Odds are you didn't need to look at a watch/clock to know that it will take you 15 mins to get to wherever you're headed. But you still take a glance at your watch.

It gets worse. If you pay enough attention, you'll notice that sometimes we glance at our watch when saying something about time which has got nothing to do with what's on the face of our watch.

"Her birthday is in about... hmm... (looks at watch)... 3 months time."

Fact is, the watch isn't going to help you calculate how many months away a certain date is. But we still have a tendency to glance at the clock/watch while our brain is doing its calculations.

The weirdest is when we pull this strange habit of looking at our wrist while talking 'time', when we're NOT even wearing a watch. It's just such a natural thing, although so undeniably redundant.

What other weird irrational behaviours have you noticed?

3 comments:

Hengster said...

I know i am very careful not to look at the watch when having appointment with someone, unless i need to bail out. else the person thought i need to go.

Anonymous said...

yes! i noticed that some people (like me) do not totally turn off the tap when we brush our teeth, so we technically leave the water running... and our right hand will be used to hold the toothbrush while our left hand will be just put under the running tap. as if the water is not wasted just coz it touches our hand. haha :D

i thought i was the only one until i bunked with some people (a few times) and i noticed them doing it too :D

Mervyn said...

lol. I didn't know people do that. I think this is a fascinating topic. Shall post more on other strange sub-conscious behaviours.