1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck. 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:10,560 Speaker 1: Jerry's out there. Oh I'm sorry, and Dave's here in 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:16,800 Speaker 1: spirit too, So short Stuff you should know the short 4 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:21,080 Speaker 1: Stuff edition. Dave Bruce, No, Dave Kustan are the editor 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,800 Speaker 1: of Short Stuff, the producer. Okay, he's our, he's our 6 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 1: Jerry for Short Stuff. No, I know, I don't. We 7 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 1: haven't given David a lot of love on the show. 8 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: I know we need to, man, he's great. Yeah, short 9 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 1: Stuff came along and Jerry was like, yeah, don't bother 10 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:37,879 Speaker 1: me with that. Yeah, I'm time for the crew. Do 11 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,559 Speaker 1: I make extra money then forget it? Yeah. Man, you 12 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: guys don't know Jerry like we know Jerry. What's great 13 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 1: is she'll never hear this. You know, that's right, because yeah, 14 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 1: Kustan will never pass this along. He's too terrified ever, 15 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 1: That's right. Uh. So we're talking about scratching our heads 16 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: when you think, which is something that I don't do. 17 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: I don't even when I read this. Though there are 18 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:06,199 Speaker 1: a couple of thinking ticks that I have that could 19 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: be explained, that's just not one of them, for sure. 20 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: And this was one of those things where I'm like, oh, 21 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: is this going to be like the origin of you know, 22 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: a grain of salt just gonna send me into like 23 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,960 Speaker 1: some sort of blind rage. I thought so at first, 24 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: and then no, it turns out when you start to 25 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: really look into this, because if you think about it, 26 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 1: that's a really weird thing to do to scratch your 27 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: head when you're sitting there thinking, and you might not 28 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 1: do it. I don't do it, but we might not 29 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: even know anybody who does that reliably. The thing is 30 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:38,640 Speaker 1: is it's like an idiom, that being a head scratcher. 31 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: It's like a cultural thing, at least in the West, 32 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: where if somebody's scratching their heads and you know they're 33 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 1: standing in front of the chalkboard, you know that they're 34 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: trying to figure out some sort of problem and they're 35 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: having trouble with it, like that's just what that has 36 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 1: to do with and they're the explanations are multitudinous, and 37 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: again it seems like something you'd be that's ridiculous, and 38 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: then if you stop and thinking about you're like, that 39 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: actually could be right in this case. Yeah, Like if 40 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: you were to take a beginning acting class and you 41 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: were in there with a bunch of dumb beginning actors 42 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: like I did in college. Uh and the and the 43 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: professor said, the acting teacher said, all right, you're you're 44 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,119 Speaker 1: here's the scene. You're trying to figure out a very 45 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:22,919 Speaker 1: difficult problem. The first thing one of those dopes would 46 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: do is scratch their head, because that is just a 47 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: popular trope to indicate, or maybe scratch their chin something 48 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: like that, which counts as part of the head, I guess, 49 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: but it's it's universally a sign that you're thinking about something. Yeah, 50 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,200 Speaker 1: so it doesn't really make any sense. Is where we 51 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,080 Speaker 1: have said that you would do that, um and there's 52 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: no definitive explanation for why, which which has really left 53 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: the door open for a lot of people that to 54 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: put some ideas up. One of the big ones is 55 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: that it's a relic of evolution and that really what 56 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: you're doing is you're not like you're not, you know, 57 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: helping along your thoughts. You're actually showing a form of distress, 58 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: whether it's angst anger anxiety. Those are kind of the 59 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 1: different interpretations and explanations. But the first one is that 60 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:19,639 Speaker 1: we're showing a remnant of what we used to do 61 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: back in the UM. The I guess the Tuck Tuck 62 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: days where somebody something made us angry, we would maybe 63 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 1: throw our arm up and strike them or whatever. And 64 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: the first explanation of this is that we we are 65 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: starting to do that, like we're raising our arm out 66 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: of anger, and then we stop because we are civilized now, 67 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: and that ends up being like, uh, we almost kind 68 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: of play it off by scratching our head. Yeah it's 69 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: a little thin, but but here's the thing. This is 70 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 1: when I was really like, oh, maybe there's a little 71 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: more to this. When you see somebody who's really mad 72 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: and they're trying to keep from hurting somebody, you will 73 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: free quickly see that person like rubbing their forehead or 74 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: rubbing the back of their neck or something like that. 75 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: And what they're saying is this is some sort of 76 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: like derivation of that. Yeah, yeah, I totally have seen that, 77 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: and that is a real thing. Uh. There's another possible explanation. 78 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,720 Speaker 1: This was in a two thousand nine article for Psychology 79 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:26,159 Speaker 1: Today when a former FBI counter intelligence agent named Joe 80 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: Navarro talked about being under stress, and he said our 81 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: brain requires a certain amount of hand to body touching, 82 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:34,840 Speaker 1: like either handwringing or rubbing your temples or touching your 83 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: lips or something. And what he's saying is is that 84 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: it's a soother U. Instead of maybe a signal to 85 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: an enemy, it's just you self soothing yourself through some 86 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,600 Speaker 1: sort of stressful or fearful situation. And there's actually some 87 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: research to back that up, which I think choke. We 88 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: should take a little break, collect our thoughts, and then 89 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:57,799 Speaker 1: come back and and talk more about this whole hoad scratcher. 90 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:25,280 Speaker 1: Great shot, all right, so you said that, um. The 91 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 1: FBI agent Joe Navarro said that this is kind of 92 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 1: like a soothing thing, like we're self soothing, Like the 93 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: sense of touch can have a soothing effect on us. 94 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,039 Speaker 1: And if we're experiencing stress or anxiety or something, just 95 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: touching yourself can can help. And supposedly because our um 96 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:46,080 Speaker 1: head is the source of this issue, our brain is, 97 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: that's why we would touch our head rather than say, 98 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: like our knees or something. The thing is, there is 99 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,839 Speaker 1: some research to back this up. Um. There was a 100 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: study in two thousand and seventeen and Scientific Reports, which 101 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: is a journal, and it's it watched Resus macaques um 102 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: which who are sorry not sorry, and they found that 103 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,039 Speaker 1: the kind of the the higher on the totem pole 104 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,840 Speaker 1: level macaques, when they were stressed out, they might start 105 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:19,040 Speaker 1: to itch or scratch or just do something. Um and 106 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: that this was taken by other maccaques who were saying 107 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:24,720 Speaker 1: maybe more aggressive as a sign of like, I'm really 108 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,039 Speaker 1: stressed out, so just kind of leave me alone, and 109 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,440 Speaker 1: they actually were left alone. Yeah, it made me think 110 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: of the Seinfeld where George said, if you want people 111 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: to leave you alone, look stressed out and annoyed. And 112 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:40,160 Speaker 1: there were all the times that they would walk by 113 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,839 Speaker 1: his office in Yankee Stadium and he was doing that. 114 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:45,040 Speaker 1: He would have his hands on his head, rubbing his temples, 115 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: and people be like, you know, everyone would pass by 116 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:53,040 Speaker 1: his office and he's a versus macaque. These um, these 117 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,039 Speaker 1: researchers were saying that the way they interpreted that is 118 00:06:56,080 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: that it tells this potential attacker, you know, one, I'm 119 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:03,280 Speaker 1: not fully stable here, so you don't know what I'm 120 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: gonna do, so maybe you lay off me. Or I'm 121 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: super stressed that I can't possibly defend myself. There's no 122 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: point in attacking me to show your dominance. I'm already 123 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: already submitting here, so don't waste your energy either way. 124 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: The Reese's macaques that displayed some sort of um itching 125 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: or scratching behavior, sorry, scratching behavior while they were stressed 126 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: out signaling they were stressed, were attacked less than those 127 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:31,000 Speaker 1: that didn't. So I like this last one a lot too. Uh. 128 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: This one that you dug up displacement activity. So you've 129 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: got an animal that has a couple of different options 130 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: and let's say a stressful situation, uh, and it doesn't 131 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: want to do either one of them, or maybe can't 132 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: decide which one to perform, so it does uh what's 133 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: called the displacement activity. So you've got a bird, let's say, 134 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: uh that another bird comes to attack, It's like, well, 135 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 1: should I attack back or should I just fly out 136 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: of here? Uh? I'm just gonna pick up the ground instead. 137 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 1: And um, preening might be another activity, or grooming oneself. 138 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 1: And the theory is that these may have emerged. Maybe 139 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: it's a soothing physical contact, or maybe it's just a 140 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,840 Speaker 1: routine behavior to calm yourself down, or maybe sort of 141 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: linking with that other one to throw off the person, 142 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 1: which kind of made me think of that guy in 143 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,200 Speaker 1: Athens who crashed his bike that day. He had two 144 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,679 Speaker 1: choices was get up really quick and get my books 145 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: and right out of there, and or act in a 146 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 1: lot of pain. And he said, I'll do the third thing. 147 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: I'm gonna act like I'm reading a book. Yeah, so 148 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:43,199 Speaker 1: he engaged in displacement activity. So there's one one last 149 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: explanation that I found, and that is that people who 150 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: scratch their head or you know, rub their eyes or 151 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,840 Speaker 1: something like that while they're thinking UM are engaged in 152 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: a certain kind of UM learning mode is what it's 153 00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:59,840 Speaker 1: called a dominant learning mode, and that is where we 154 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:04,440 Speaker 1: our senses are involved in the way that we think about, 155 00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: or recall or take in information. And so people who 156 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:12,439 Speaker 1: are tactile with their learning modes would might touch themselves, 157 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:15,960 Speaker 1: touch their their heads or something like that. UM. People 158 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: who are visual learners might kind of look up in 159 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 1: the sky or something like that. That's where you're like, 160 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 1: you're kind of exaggerating the point of the sense, even 161 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,199 Speaker 1: though that sense is not giving you any information and 162 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:30,880 Speaker 1: helping along. It's almost like we just kind of revert 163 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: to the sense that we're most comfortable with maybe taking 164 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: information in with I'm not sure, but that's the last 165 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: explanation I saw. Yeah, that's the one that really hit 166 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:42,959 Speaker 1: home for me because I am one thousand percent of 167 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:47,760 Speaker 1: visual learner. Uh. If somebody's trying to explain something like 168 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: how something operates, they can talk to me untill they're 169 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: blue in the face. But if I actually see it, 170 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,200 Speaker 1: I will understand it. And if I'm thinking of something 171 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:57,520 Speaker 1: or if I'm deep in thought, I will often like 172 00:09:57,640 --> 00:09:59,319 Speaker 1: tip back in my chair and kind of look up 173 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:02,880 Speaker 1: in sky and they're saying that that's what I'm doing. Basically, 174 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 1: you know, it makes sense. Somebody needs to teach you 175 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: about percentages visually because there ain't no such thing as 176 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 1: a thousand percent. Shut up. I have to say, Chuck, 177 00:10:12,679 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: you can't see me right now, but I have never 178 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: scratched my head more than I heard during this this recording. 179 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: This has been brutal. Alright, well, hopefully you didn't lose 180 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,160 Speaker 1: too many. Um So that's it for short stuff. Everybody, 181 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:31,959 Speaker 1: me and Chuck say Audios. Stuff you should know is 182 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,319 Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radios. How stuff works for more podcasts. 183 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:37,800 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio is that the iHeart Radio app, Apple 184 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.