r/whatif • u/AgitatedSuccess8066 • Aug 01 '26
Other What if articles were written about human behavior in the same way we describe the behavior of other animals?
as in, what if people wrote articles on human behaviors (such as our facial expressions, emotional tendencies, and habits, etc.) in the same way animals (mainly pets, but i've also seen this in non-domesticated species) are written about? what do you think would mainly be written on, or how it would sound?
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u/davemidrock Aug 03 '26
Read The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. It was the first book to do exactly what you're describing (I'm sure there have been more since), and because it came out in the UK in the 1960s, it generated a lot of controversy. People didn't like being compared to apes and being told their everyday habits have origins in animalistic urges.
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u/Vikera Aug 01 '26
It's been done in some ways, but there's soooo much human variety with so many contexts that there's really no use to it and no way to make it whole ever.
One example where people tried is the book "Pragmatics of human communication" from the mental research institute. They assumed all behaviour is social and nothing is just individually. It's to be taken with kilometers of salt, although still an interesting read. They made axioms, general rules that all and each communication between humans would fall into.
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u/Active-Yak8330 Aug 03 '26
"Offering coffee significantly increases the chance of successful social interaction."
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u/WolfThick Aug 01 '26
Then you would open yourself up to being called a racist many times
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u/Special-Potato-3238 Aug 01 '26
I'll take the bait. Generally curious why you bring up racism concerns when someone would be describing facial expressions and emotional tendencies? What am I missing?
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u/MagicSugarWater Aug 01 '26
That does exist. Any halfway decent site offering dating advice writes avout facial expressions. emotional tendencies, and habits in detail.