Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Head scratching, eyebrow furrowing, chin stroking

They represent frustrated aggression

Dear Matthew Alice, Why is it, when people can't answer a question, they reflexively scratch their heads, as if it helps them think? Can scratching your head really improve your ability to answer any simple question? — M.S., San Diego

The perfect M.A. question, of course, familiar as I am with head scratching, eyebrow furrowing, chin stroking, and other cerebrum helpers. But we don’t ordinarily need gestural aids to answer simple questions. It’s the tough ones that cause us to reflexively cast our eyes at the ceiling or grab our napes and start to pace until we come up with a brilliant answer. Or any answer at all.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Automatic gestures are a kind of expressive shorthand for our feelings. The most cogent explanation of head scratching and other hand-to-head or hand-to-neck moves is that they represent frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our club-swinging, rockthrowing ancestors. When we’re wrestling with some knotty problem, we may experience feelings of frustration, perhaps some anger, and, before we know it, our hand flies up in the air. But hold it a minute. In these modern times, it’s not polite to bash the guy who asked the question. Or throw a rock at him. So to deflect attention from this aggressive move, we drop our hand to our neck and rub it or scratch our heads. At least that’s the way anthropologists see the situation — as a polite, disguised expression of an urge to hit something.

Psychologists have a slightly different explanation, though related in some ways. First we’ll have to understand that most absent-minded, self-touching movements are interpreted by professional people-analyzers as efforts to comfort ourselves in times of stress. If there’s no one around to give us a reassuring pat, we’ll pat ourselves, is the reasoning. Head touching, then, would be a way of relieving the stress of feeling stupid and frustrated or however we feel when we can’t think of an answer. The movement is directed at the head because the source of our distress is our lame brain.

Neuropsychologists would say head-scratchers are people who deal with the world most comfortably through their sense of touch or through movement. Each of us, they believe, has a dominant orientation — our sense of sight, hearing, or touch — and we tend to learn and to solve problems through our favorite sense. When perplexed, a visual person might be more inclined to cast his eyes toward the ceiling and try to “see” the elusive answer. An aural person might tug at an ear and try to “hear” it. So head scratching, to some professionals, is seen as a method for touch- or movement-oriented people to stimulate some brain power.

Oh, yes. Does head scratching work? Gee, I...um, let me think about that one. I’ll get back to you.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule

Dear Matthew Alice, Why is it, when people can't answer a question, they reflexively scratch their heads, as if it helps them think? Can scratching your head really improve your ability to answer any simple question? — M.S., San Diego

The perfect M.A. question, of course, familiar as I am with head scratching, eyebrow furrowing, chin stroking, and other cerebrum helpers. But we don’t ordinarily need gestural aids to answer simple questions. It’s the tough ones that cause us to reflexively cast our eyes at the ceiling or grab our napes and start to pace until we come up with a brilliant answer. Or any answer at all.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Automatic gestures are a kind of expressive shorthand for our feelings. The most cogent explanation of head scratching and other hand-to-head or hand-to-neck moves is that they represent frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our club-swinging, rockthrowing ancestors. When we’re wrestling with some knotty problem, we may experience feelings of frustration, perhaps some anger, and, before we know it, our hand flies up in the air. But hold it a minute. In these modern times, it’s not polite to bash the guy who asked the question. Or throw a rock at him. So to deflect attention from this aggressive move, we drop our hand to our neck and rub it or scratch our heads. At least that’s the way anthropologists see the situation — as a polite, disguised expression of an urge to hit something.

Psychologists have a slightly different explanation, though related in some ways. First we’ll have to understand that most absent-minded, self-touching movements are interpreted by professional people-analyzers as efforts to comfort ourselves in times of stress. If there’s no one around to give us a reassuring pat, we’ll pat ourselves, is the reasoning. Head touching, then, would be a way of relieving the stress of feeling stupid and frustrated or however we feel when we can’t think of an answer. The movement is directed at the head because the source of our distress is our lame brain.

Neuropsychologists would say head-scratchers are people who deal with the world most comfortably through their sense of touch or through movement. Each of us, they believe, has a dominant orientation — our sense of sight, hearing, or touch — and we tend to learn and to solve problems through our favorite sense. When perplexed, a visual person might be more inclined to cast his eyes toward the ceiling and try to “see” the elusive answer. An aural person might tug at an ear and try to “hear” it. So head scratching, to some professionals, is seen as a method for touch- or movement-oriented people to stimulate some brain power.

Oh, yes. Does head scratching work? Gee, I...um, let me think about that one. I’ll get back to you.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego's Uptown Planners challenged by renters from Vibrant Uptown

Two La Jolla planning groups fight for predominance
Next Article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.