Why is it that people simply don't think?

[RickJay]

I’m going to go against the flow here and suggest that people are smarter than we’re giving them credit for. I think there’s three misapprehensions going on here:

1. The usual assumption that us SDMB folks are geniuses. We aren’t.

2. Observation bias. You always notice the dork whose grocery cart is in your way. You DON’T notice the other 100 people in the store who took pains to ensure they weren’t blocking the aisle.

3. I think the reason people sometimes don’t think, or aren’t very aware of their surroundings, is not that they’re stupid, but that thinking is hard and you can only do so much of it at once. I’m not denying that there are world-class morons around, but you know, sometimes people have a lot going on in their heads, and how they’re arranged in a grocery aisle might not be at the top of the priority list.

I don’t know about you folks, but at any given time I’m mulling over half a dozen issues; in a three-minute span in the canned good aisle I might work on a scheduling problem with my clients, think about the problem of my daughter still pooping her pants at night, come up with a way to approach an issue with my wife, consider that my car’s likely due for an oil change, fret over the plight of the Blue Jays, and plan out the rest of my evening because I need to figure out when I’m going to work out. If I briefly forget I’m in the middle of the aisle, well, sorry, I’m not stupid but I’m not Data, either.

@xtisme

I think it’s a matter of curtsy…or lack there of. We aren’t a polite or orderly society, as a whole, so people tend to do whatever they want. If you go to other countries where curtsy is expected then, because of social pressure, you get people who don’t act like those in the OP.

I don’t mean to be picky, but how many times have you left your country? Americans are quite courteous.

As a Canadian, I was taken aback almost immediately at how rude people were in England. Especially European tourists. Halfway into the second day I was about ready to re-declare World War II just because of the number of Germans who didn’t seem to understand the concept of lining up.

But after a week I started to learn that it wasn’t that they were rude; they just had different levels of courtesy for different things. No, they could’t form an orderly line to save their lives, but on the other hand the attitude of service people was consistently, remarkably friendly. Yes, people littered to an extent that in North America would be considered gross, but on the other hand security guards and cops were much friendlier than I’m used to.

This’ll be true anywhere. One of my best friends remarked about how, when he lived in the Middle East (his Dad was a diplomat) they had to completely relearn ruled of courtesy; Arabs are in some ways unbelievably rude by our standards, but in others are almost ridiculously polite. When they come here it’s the reverse.

A little understanding and empathy goes a long way.

[Rebo]

@Hazle_Weatherfield

A matter of curtsy?!

Wouldn’t it be more courteous to gently correct an error, than point and laugh?

It is spelled “courtesy,” not “curtsy,” xtisme.

[panache45]

@Rebo

Wouldn’t it be more courteous to gently correct an error, than point and laugh?

It is spelled “courtesy,” not “curtsy,” xtisme.

I was going to point that out, then thought “curtsy” goes with “xtisme.”

[Lamia]

@Markxxx

What I find interesting is that in my gym we have several locations for drinking fountains. All of these locations have two drinking fountains. One is at normal level and one is very low so people with disabilities, like a wheel chair, can access it.

Yet time after time, I see people filling up their bottle of water from the higer up drinking fountain. Why?

I mean it’s no huge deal but still if you don’t have a bottle for water you have to bend way over to drink from the low fountain. And since it’s no more trouble to fill your bottle up from the lower one, why not use that one?

Not sure about other places or if this is a “bug” or a “feature”, but at my place of employment you can’t have both water fountains going at once. Not properly, at least. It seems like there’s only enough water pressure for one. If one is going and someone tries to turn on the other one they both die down to a trickle. So if someone were filling their bottle from the lower fountain, no one would be able to drink from the higher fountain anyway.

Also, I do have to bend over to fill my bottle from a lower fountain.

[KneadToKnow]

I see someone curtsying as they get off an escalator, I’m gonna flatten 'em.

[control-z]

People’s brains get full, you can only think about so much at once. That or their brains are just empty in general.

Bill Cosby did a great stand-up routine about how it seems like people just walk around with a “BZZZZZZZZZZ!!!” or something in their head, can’t find it on YouTube though.