Three Theories on Why You Dance When You Need to Pee
Writing a dance is an ancient tradition. You are waiting for the bathroom and for some reason you start to fidget. The How to Do Everything podcast spoke with Dr. Peter Lehman to get a look at some of the theories explaining why we do this weird behavior.
Lehman parses each theory as follows:
One theory is rhythmic displacement. When we are faced with a conflict, we do different rhythmic things … The thought is that it is just human nature to create rhythmic behavior to help you deal with the anxiety of this conflict …
The next theory is the distraction effect … This is the whole idea of dealing with pain with pain. Something hurts, so you do something else that doesn’t distract you the first time …
Then there is the idea that crossing the legs actually helps to constrict the sphincter … there is probably a small reality that crossing the legs helps to squeeze things, and I’m sure there is a mental component to it. We just feel like “this is where it comes out, and if we shrink forward, maybe that will help stop it.” It probably doesn’t really matter.
With that said, Lehman notes that it’s probably best to just stay calm and wait. But we still have this primordial nature that makes us move. In any case, don’t delay it too long .
Episode 245: Piss Dance | How to do everything