To suppress a possible scream? Thought about this on the drive home tonight and figured I’d throw it out there.
Maybe it’s related to an innate impulse to cover a scream, but I get the impression it’s learned behavior from the people I’ve seen do it. It’s certainly something more common in fiction than in real life in my experience.
Also, it may not be a scream that they’re covering up, it may be words they don’t want to say out loud.
Because it’s unseemly to stand there with your mouth open.
I certainly don’t. Apart from movies, I don’t know who does.
I don’t. I got a major shock last week and just stared at the news. I think the gesture is a Hollywood thing.
This is just a WAG but generally when people do that it isn’t to cover a scream but to cover a dramatic, inhaling gasp. So maybe its some kind of evolutionary thing to, I don’t know, prevent bugs from getting sucked in or something. And it isn’t just a Hollywood thing, I see people (mostly women) in documentaries do it all the time.
I’ve done it myself in a moment of sudden shock and I’ve seen others do it. Sometimes movie cliches become cliches for a reason–the fact that they’re not uncommon in real life. I wonder, though, whether females do it more than males (I’m female)
Another cliched action–wringing one’s hands–I had always thought “Who does that?” But then one time, when I heard some very distressing news and was agonizing over it, I found that I had unconsciously started wringing my hands.
Here’s a thread about the hand over mouth topic
It’s to keep your soul and skeleton bones from jumping out.
Really? To me, it seems to be a common reaction. I’m not sure why I do it. I assume it’s mostly conditioning to do so, but that conditioning also is for covering your mouth, as in a yawn, when your mouth drops open, whether it be a yawn, cough, or whatnot.
You can’t be serious. Are you joking?
Didn’t realize this question had already been asked (sorry), but I just thought of another example: the famous Situation Room photo taken during the bin Laden raid. Hillary’s hand is over her mouth in reaction to something she’s seeing.
I’m not sure what you’re incredulous about. Are you not conditioned to cover your mouth when you open your mouth agape?
I find that I touch my chin/mouth area when I’m thinking. When I hear something surprising or shocking, I suppose my hand would go to that area because my mind starts moving. Why? Dunno.
Here is an example at 15 seconds into vid:
I’m not sure if I actually do it or not, but if I do this would be my assumption. When my mouth gapes open, I cover it up.
I also scratch my head when I’m thinking hard. But then I scratch my head when I’m not thinking hard - I must have a nervous tic and an itchy scalp.
I have also seen stars after bumping my head.
One thing I know I don’t have is a light bulb floating over my head when I have a good idea.
[quote=“Stinky_Pete, post:14, topic:744458”]
Here is an example at 15 seconds into vid:
[/QUOTE]Or, sorry to toot my own horn, look at the woman in the background between the bride and the father of this photo I took. Common reaction.
Nice photo… But man, something very disturbing about the way the groom looks. His gaze? His stance? Strange.
As for the subject, I don’t know the actual reason, but I’ve definitely seen people do it many times throughout my life so far. I always had the understanding that it was just rude to stand there with your mouth open, like White SIFL says.
I do, or at least I know I did it.
I suppose that’s the reason.
Although in this case, she’s probably suppressing a laugh, rather than her shock.
Also, isn’t this picture posed?
So the real question is: is it learned behaviour - Hollywood or otherwise - or biology. My money’s on learned behaviour:
Women do it more often than men, because women are better at relationship stuff, thus better at using body language to show socially desirable behaviour in a specific situation. The fact that the Dutch Queen-to-be covered her mouth in 2009 (which started the same thread back then) reinforces that argument: it’s her job to show the rest of the country how a decent woman should behave.
Then again: to be scientifically certain we have to show some stone age tribe something shocking and film the mouths and hands …