Why are the most bizarre behaviours among human beings?

[sergeidave]

I mean, aren't we humans supposed to be the most intelligent creatures on this planet?

And I am not talking about morality here, I mean really the scientific aspect of it. Why do things like genocide, serial killers, sex crimes, tons of really weird 'philias', and much more, happen mostly among human beings?

I just remembered a song by Roberto Carlos which mentions somehting like "I would really like to be civilized like the animals", it makes you stop and think...

[Pangloss]

There's a difference between "civilized" and "non-sentient".

 

What scientific aspect of the problem would you like to discuss? We need to be specific, but if you want to talk about the problems of sentience from a philosophical perspective I can move this over to General or to Pseudoscience and Speculations for you.

[iNow]

Why are the most bizarre behaviours among human beings?

Because humans are the ones creating and applying the label, and we're more likely to use the perspective given by our own sense of "normalcy" when describing that which is bizarre.

 

 

What's bizarre to a human is not necessarily bizarre to a cephalopod or a dolphin or an insect.

[sergeidave]

There's a difference between "civilized" and "non-sentient".

 

What scientific aspect of the problem would you like to discuss? We need to be specific, but if you want to talk about the problems of sentience from a philosophical perspective I can move this over to General or to Pseudoscience and Speculations for you.

 

Well, I also realized too late that I was posting this on General Biology. Of course this topic may be better placed in a more appropiate category but not pseudoscience please. You would agree with me that true science also studies the behaviours of all living creatures, which this thread is related to.

 

Because humans are the ones creating and applying the label, and we're more likely to use the perspective given by our own sense of "normalcy" when describing that which is bizarre.

 

 

What's bizarre to a human is not necessarily bizarre to a cephalopod or a dolphin or an insect.

 

I meant things like, for example, murder. Surely most animals kill other living creatures some time in their lives, but you have to agree that their motives are different that many human murders. Animals may kill to get something to eat, to defend their offspring or themselves, etc. Of course humans many times kill in self defense, but, there are many murders which are commited just for pleasure or for no other "excusable" reason. Just an example.

[Phi for All]

Why do things like genocide, serial killers, sex crimes, tons of really weird 'philias', and much more, happen mostly among human beings?

A combination of a worldwide population of 6.6B, the highest intelligence of any earthly species, 24/7 news coverage, and various frustrations brought on by too much focus on unimportant issues and rapid shift of priorities from hunter/gatherer to agrarian to modern civilized city dweller, imo.

[padren]

We aren't just "highly intelligent" creatures, we are also highly emotional, highly creative, and highly self absorbed.

 

The human animal primarily adapts through permutations in thinking, not genetics, which occurs at a much faster rate - which also creates entire branches of "fails" that seem to occur within our lifetime. Combine that with the social aspect in which "group think" can be taken to ridiculous levels through communal reinforcement what we end up seeing is just like genetic mutation, but much faster and not without it's "failures to improve survivability/procreation" in spectacular form.

 

Combine that with what Phi is saying - essentially, if it's happening, and it's weird, Jerry Springer will find it and bring it to your living room... it's easy to get a skewed perspective on it all.

 

 

But all this permutation is not without merit - and may be helpful in modern life. Some guy with a mundane job and very little passion for life may be very unlikely to gather up the energy to go out and meet someone and raise a family - if it wasn't for that burning foot fetish he has.

[SkepticLance]

First : bizarre behaviour. General rule - if you can imagine someone doing it, then someone has done it. This includes weird forms of suicide and physical maiming to themselves. However, such weird behaviours are rare. It is just that, with 6.5 billion people on the planet, there are lots of examples of even the rareist behaviours.

 

Second : Animals. The main reason why animals are seen as less weird is simply that we still have not studied animal behaviour in sufficient detail. As ethologists delve deeper and deeper, more and more aberrant behaviour arises. Chimps at war. Primates murdering each other. Animal homosexuality. Weird methods of animal masturbation. The more we learn, the weirder animal bahaviour gets.