Why do we put our hands on our heads when something makes us also want to yell "NO!"

Comments

• otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  There’s a reel of a dad watching a sport game on TV with his infant son. The kid keeps looking at his dad for how to react, and seems to understand what’s happening on the TV. When the team scores a point, the kid throws his hands up into the air and cheers, having seen his dad do that behaviour before.

  Then he looks to his dad, who’s got his hands on his head, saying “NO!”. It was the wrong team that scored.

  The kid puts his head into his hands, and collapses on the couch in his best imitation of his father.

  You have years, perhaps decades, of watching people in your culture do this. So it feels natural for you to do.

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  • ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Interesting, never thought about that. Now I’m curious how far back we’d need to go in different cultures until we don’t see anyone doing this kind of thing - nowadays I think it’s pretty common around the globe.

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    • DankOfAmerica@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Watch it have been some ancient Navy SEALS hand signal meaning FUBAR and it caught on when the ancient warrior automatically used it as he saw his hut burning down from an accidental fire. Now, all of humanity uses it.

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  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Mirror neurons!

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  • peereboominc@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Good point. Would there be cultures that don’t do this?

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    • otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Probably, but I’m not familiar enough with all cultures to give examples.

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• jqubed@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I don’t know, but I like having the name for this be surrender cobra:

  Surrender Cobra Compilation gif

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  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Now I just need to find a reason to use this term!

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• homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  hands-on-head is nature’s helmet

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  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s things like this that feel weirdly tragic, that our ancestors went through so much shit that only the ones with weird reflexes to grab their cranium made it. (Young enough to have not had kids yet mind you). And so here we are, grabbing our heads when our team doesn’t score, a chromosomal echo of some brutal day in the Kenyan Great Rift Valley…

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  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Holy shit that actually makes sense

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• MelonYellow@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Because you’re trying to keep your brain from exploding!

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