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Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

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Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#11

Post by nateburke »

Related: growing up, one of the things that my sister and I would joke about was the extent to which we both would both unconsciously smell our wrists and lower arm areas while doing math. We would catch each other all the time doing it and it was hilarious. Here is an example of what I am talking about:

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/03/24/business/24artifi...

As a completely uninformed guess, I think the link between focus and smelling one's hand/wrist might have something to do with early feelings of comfort as an infant associated with the smell of a parent's skin. The idea being that introducing a close approximation of that smell would remove any distraction brought on by other, less familiar smells, and increase focus.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#13

Post by lowdose »

qubex wrote: post #10
lowdose wrote: post #4

Maybe this behavior is bit more sophisticated version of what dogs to when meet. Dogs like push their nose comfortably in areas we generally prefer to hide from strangers, when they like the smell a good chance this is rewarded with a doggy style session. I sometimes think we have made the persuasion game so complicated and we could be a lot happier if everybody starts having 10x more sex tomorrow.

Fallacy of Chesterton's Fence: Don”t demolish things (including social norms) until you understand why they arose in the first place. Most likely somebody solved a problem you no longer perceive because the solution is currently in place and blocking its manifestation. Sure, the problems might be antiquated cruft that is no longer relevant and no longer serves a purpose... but it might not.

Let's for simplicity apply Occam's razor:

When we didn't have modern birth control solutions cultural rituals were an effective measure against women giving birth to seven children from different men.

We removed that natural health taxing consequence of having sex. Could you elaborate on your fence a bit because I'm always curious about unknown unknowns to me.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#14

Post by elliekelly »

I wonder whether makeup influences the frequency or location of face touches. I wear glasses/contacts and I’ve noticed I rub my eyes fairly often during my (recently makeup-free) work day but I definitely don’t when I’m wearing mascara or false lashes.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#15

Post by qubex »

lowdose wrote: post #13
qubex wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fallacy of Chesterton's Fence: Don”t demolish things (including social norms) until you understand why they arose in the first place. Most likely somebody solved a problem you no longer perceive because the solution is currently in place and blocking its manifestation. Sure, the problems might be antiquated cruft that is no longer relevant and no longer serves a purpose... but it might not.

Let's for simplicity apply Occam's razor: When we didn't have modern birth control solutions cultural rituals were an effective measure against women giving birth to seven children from different men. We removed that natural health taxing consequence of having sex. Could you elaborate on your fence a bit because I'm always curious about unknown unknowns to me.

I haven’t stated an opinion on the matter, I’m just cautioning against these offhanded remarks about massive societal re-engineering.

Though your example is telling, actually. Humans are fairly unusual insofar as females do not have significant observable markers of being fertile or not (in the animal example, “in heat”). So you’d really have to go back and look at why evolution selected for this particular characteristic and what its consequences were, how it influenced sexual norms, and only then layer on the consideration you make about contraception.

And yes, this is vastly contentious, and no, we are not going to solve it in the footnotes of a tech-centric forum. But my message was intended to be more general.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#16

Post by sdenton4 »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #12

Odd. I touch my face almost compulsively, but I have an extremely poor sense of smell. I smell my hands right now, I can't tell what they smell like at all.

Self-smelling could be a mechanism for figuring out self-smell for the purposes of not getting confused by it when trying to distinguish environmental sources. In which case it would be perfectly reasonable to not smell 'anything' when actively smelling oneself.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#17

Post by quaquaqua1 »

I am a native English speaker who graduated with a 3.8 GPA in History from a world Top 30 university.

I still had to use a dictionary to understand what "subserves" means in this context.

Our language is so hilariously broken with all of the "aliasing" that is used by people who want to make themselves sound smarter.

What we should do instead is try to make sure other people can understand what we are trying to say.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#18

Post by throwanem »

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #17

I am a native English speaker who graduated with a 3.8 GPA in History from a world Top 30 university. I still had to use a dictionary to understand what "subserves" means in this context. Our language is so hilariously broken with all of the "aliasing" that is used by people who want to make themselves sound smarter. What we should do instead is try to make sure other people can understand what we are trying to say.

I'm another native speaker who graduated high school more by dint of luck and pity than for any other reason, and then went to work instead of college. Between the context and the similarity with the adjective "subservient", "subserves" proved trivial to parse, and I haven't yet been able to come up with another expression of the same concept that is also as concise. In any case, it seems unlikely that educational attainment is all that useful an indicator here.

In general writing, your point has merit. In the title of an academic paper published in a journal of philosophy, I don't know that the strictures and desiderata of general writing wholly apply.

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#19

Post by wallflower »

dopylitty wrote: post #9

I've been wondering what counts as touching your face for purposes of virus transmission. In the paper they highlight people whose fingers are under or in their noses but I wonder if something like grazing your cheek or forehead would count. Is there some mechanism the virus would use to migrate from the forehead/cheek into the eyes/nose or is the "don't touch your face" advice really shorthand for "don't pick your n…

EDIT: Yes. Personally, I would not risk it if it lowers my chance of getting infected. The choice is up to you.

> These pathogens can be picked up by our hands and get into the body through mucous membranes on the face — eyes, nose, and mouth — that act as pathways to the throat and lungs.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/09/how-touching-your-face-c...

Re: Face-touching may reflect unconscious hand-smelling [pdf]

#20

Post by [deleted] »

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #17

I am a native English speaker who graduated with a 3.8 GPA in History from a world Top 30 university. I still had to use a dictionary to understand what "subserves" means in this context. Our language is so hilariously broken with all of the "aliasing" that is used by people who want to make themselves sound smarter. What we should do instead is try to make sure other people can understand what we are trying to say.

[deleted]
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