# Is there a term for trivial, isolated, irrationally compelling behaviors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871 "2007-05-05T12:24:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/1 "2007-05-05T12:24:23Z")
People occasionally fasten on idiosyncratic behaviors that seem to provide a sense of fulfillment completely unrelated to the specifics of the activity in question-- for example, clicking those retractable pens repeatedly, or popping that commerical bubble wrap packing material. There’s a whole pocket industry that appears to capitalize on the same principle, by manufacturing “stress-relieving” products like those little squeeze ball office toys they give away at conventions and such. Yet I’ve never heard a specific clinical term for such behaviors. It doesn’t seem like they typically reflect any larger pattern of stress-related obsessive behavior-- it’s not as though habitual pen-clickers go around repeatedly clicking every clickable item in sight. Weirdly, I’m inspired to ask this question because I’ve discovered a personal fascination with paint scraping. It’s bizarrely specific-- there’s this one cabinet that was apparently painted improperly, and now the paint scrapes off at the slightest touch. This phenomenon is insanely compelling to me. A key, paper clip, any metal object, causes a nice clean scrape-- _zzziiipppp!!!_ The sound, the texture, is just inexplicably fascinating for no obvious reason I can discern. Am I stressed lately? Sure, but I’ve been stressed before, and I’ve never had the urge to scrape paint. I have absolutely no desire to go scraping paint off other objects, yet I’ll likely keep at this one cabinet until there’s no paint left. I have no desire to click pens or pop bubble wrap. What is this weird compulsion about? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/2 "2007-05-05T13:23:17Z")
Any compulsion _taken to extremes_ would, I imagine, be symptomatic of obsessive-compulsive disorder. I am not a doctor, but I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/3 "2007-05-05T13:33:38Z")
The pacing that some zoo animals will do is called _idiosyncratic behavior_, and that may well be the term you are looking for. However, you used the term in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/4 "2007-05-05T13:40:15Z")
I believe the term, colloquially, is “tic.” [See the third definition here.](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&defl=en&q=define:tic&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title) ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/5 "2007-05-05T14:20:55Z")
Fidgeting. ---
**Author:** ![1point618](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/c57346/32.png) [@1point618](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1point618)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/6 "2007-05-05T15:04:24Z")
I’ve always called my habits such as that “nervous habits” even when they don’t indicate that I am nervous. Lately, I’ve taken up pen spinning, because if I’m going to put that much energy into something, it may as well look cool. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-trivial-isolated-irrationally-compelling-behaviors/402871/7 "2007-05-05T15:08:25Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] The pacing that some zoo animals will do is called _idiosyncratic behavior_, and that may well be the term you are looking for. However, you used the term in the OP. [/QUOTE] Wrong! The correct term is _stereotypic behavior_. [http://www.awionline.org/lab\_animals/biblio/at-phil.htm](http://www.awionline.org/lab_animals/biblio/at-phil.htm) (sorry for the previous brain fart)