Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
I totally get what you're saying!
My personal example is when I finish a task, my default action is to have a cigarette, and/or look at my phone.
I don't know if it directly explains these actions or not, but psychology uses the term schema for "pre-programmed" responses to stimuli.
For example, if there was a dog that bit you as a kid, your mind will remember that, and the next time you see a dog, your brain will default to "stay away". If you encounter friendly dogs after that, your schema will change to "proceed with caution" as it now knows that dogs can be nice, but it'll remember that bite.
They are mental shortcuts. Instead of completely analyzing the current situation and creating a plan from scratch, your brain remembers the last similar experience it had, and proceeds as if they are pretty much the same.
I'm thinking this relates to your "default actions" as: I was bored before, and when I did X, it caused the boredom to go away, so I'll try that first. And it just kind of happens without you consciously deciding to do it.
Also, if I'm the only person that understands what you're talking about, you might be describing a trait of ADHD. I used to think a lot of the things I experienced were completely normal, but eventually figured out that I'm very neurodivergent.
what you are describe just sound like habits? An action in response to lack of stimulus is still a habitat. When OP said default action in the post header, I thought that they just didn't realise they are talking about instincts
Yeah, more or less, but habit has a different, less concrete definition. If a habit was a building, many schemas would be the blueprints for it.