@Mrfunkedude @_
@Mrfunkedude @_ I have a theory, ahem 🦕

There’s a phenomenon in psychology called “mirror neurons” - These are brain cells that fire in similar ways when we do something, or when we see someone else doing that thing. I think the idea is that we see someone doing something, our brain tries to recreate that action, with *ourselves in the starring role*, so we can try it on and understand it. That neural activity extends to a small amount of muscular activity as well.

There's a great experiment (that I can't track down, there's too much interference by a different study in the search results) where they had subjects look at pictures of people smiling, and the subject had to decide whether the smile was real or fake. Normally we're about 60% proficient but some groups with more experience judging emotions do better. Apparently, if you do the same test while clenching a pencil between your teeth, your score drops to random chance, 50%. You've locked up the muscles that your brain uses to "try on" the smile and decide if it feels real or not.

Okay, here's my idea. When your standard troglodyte looks at someone with purple hair, or being gay, or wearing something not made of denim, their brain creates a model where *they* have purple hair, or is gay, etc., and that makes them very uncomfortable. They're not uncomfortable with *you* having purple hair, they're uncomfortable with *them* having purple hair. You are the cause of that discomfort, so they get mad at you. You're causing them deep-seated pain, and you must be punished for that.

I’m convinced, more and more, that this is the cause of almost every reaction that makes you ask, “Why do you care? It has nothing to do with you!”

Hashtags for debate, and so people can correct my layman mistakes 😄
#Psychology #MirrorNeuron #Prejudice #Peace