Introducing displacement behaviour

This blog is dedicated to the topic of displacement behaviour in humans.   So, what is displacement behaviour?  Well, put most simply it is a kind of fidgeting directed towards oneself. We have all experienced it when caught in two minds about something and we fidget or scratch the forehead or chin.  Technically speaking it is an automatic, self-directed behaviour that people engage in when they are anxious or stressed.   What makes it interesting from ethological and evolutionary points of view is that it is behaviour that very much links humans and animal behaviour together.  But more on that as this blog develops.  

My name is Will and this blog is my way of investigating further into displacement behaviour outside of a formal academic context.  It is a platform for expressing my interest and connecting with people out there who may have a similar fascination.  This started for me when I decided to study psychology in order to find out more about hair pulling behaviour (or trichotillomania) in people.  It led me to understand that animals too when in captivity have been shown to bite at their own hair or the hair of other animals around them.  Findings from the field of ethology (or the study of animal behaviour), have demonstrated that such self-directed behaviors occur when an animal is thwarted in the performance of an action by its environment or when two impluses (e.g. fight versus flight) are in opposition to each other. 

This blog aims to highlight different displacement behaviours, from common ones such as chin rubbing or lip chewing to hair pulling.  If you are interested, as I am, in what makes us human then I hope you will find it worth reading and posting comments on.

Will