Idea, before I try to go to sleep.
Aliens who have emotions analogous to humans, but nevertheless the gulf of understanding between them and humans is kinda large. Most communication is about trade because that is well understood by both parties, and is seldom disastrous. But they're very curious creatures, just like we are, and wish to experience human connection.
Because they don't all fully see humans as people, this sometimes results in an alien seeking, above all else, a reaction. Anger, disgust, pity, and even laughter can come pretty easily, but sometimes this can go do far as to seek out reactions of love.
For the aliens, this is usually just a pastime, just a lark. Humans tend to read a lot into these interactions even when they know better, as these tend to mimic human interactions with the intention of getting an emotional response.
That humans don't outwardly emote the same way these aliens do is not an impediment; it is in fact the very cause of the curiosity, as well as a partial cause for the frequent undervaluing of the response. The responses are overt and clear in their extremeness, but psychologically ambiguous in that they lack most of this species' usual emotive signs. Likewise, these aliens when happy do not smile; if they're smiling, it's part of an interaction either to get a response, or because they are well informed that humans are supposed to like that sort of thing.
Still, it's not always so bad. Some of these aliens are mollified by mere chatbots, enjoying a poor simulacrum of human behavior without any humans coming to harm or annoyance; and many of the aliens are able to bridge the intellectual and emotional gap and realize that the human emotions they're eliciting should be ones they themselves would appreciate being invoked, even if they don't emote the same way.

This is in no small part inspired by my own autistic experiences. I have long suspected that I need large, direct, obvious responses in order to make a social interaction predictable to me. If I got that by harassing people into a predictable set of angry responses, it might meet the same needs as I usually meet by instead trying to be boisterously pleasant or funny. Without those big, overt displays of emotion, I am left guessing, and guessing badly, and perhaps also am left without a sense of emotional or personal connection, something most people hunger for even among the autistic population. (Not all of us, nor all of anybody, but that's not my point.)

Which brings me around to the alien comedian who goes on stage and looks out at the audience with a glassy, unnerving stare and a creepy, quiet smile, and tells people, "I like getting big emotional responses out of people, which is why, when I meet a human for the first time, I look at them just like this, and say, 'I shot John F. Kennedy.'"

#alien-psychology #xenology #autism-as-xenology #autism #rant #just-an-idea