Why do people ask "Why..." when it comes to human behaviour?

Curiosity, a futile search for a truth which may satisfy their lust for understanding.
I agree with you though, sometimes shit just happens, leave it at that.

“If we really knew what goes on in people’s brains, we would have discovered those answers centuries ago.”
Centuries ago, people believed that the brain is only there to cool the blood.
The brain is a lot more complicated than that. We still do not know how it all works in its entirety. We do not completely know how memories form, and we do not know at all how consciousness arises from the neural net. Neurobiology is still in its infancy, and Psychology is almost pure guesswork anyway.

“It seems like a huge waste of time.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
If you only know that something happens, you will never be able to prevent it from happening.
For prevention, you have to find out why it happens.

Centuries ago, all we knew is that your hair stood up if you hold a rod next to it that had been rubbed with a cloth.
What a waste of time that was to find out why it did that, huh?

Understanding that somebody behaves a certain way is fine if all you’re trying to do is predict future behavior. If you’re trying to change behaviors, you need to understand the mechanism that drives the behaviors.

Some years back, there was a women who was being treated for Parkinson’s disease using the standard treatment, L-dopa. Shortly after beginning the treatment, she began gambling compulsively and, over the next few years, gambled away all of her possessions, ruined her marriage, and alienated the rest of her family. Eventually, it was understood that the L-dopa was interfering with her brain’s dopamine-based reward mechanism. The L-dopa treatment was discontinued and her compulsion to gamble immediately ceased.

Understanding that she had a gambling problem was of no help in remedying the problem. It took understanding why she gambled.

@thorninmud So when the time comes, will you vote FOR thought control?

This sounds like a defeatist question at best, and anti-science at worst.

We ask why so we can understand. Knowledge takes millenniums to build. We have come a long way already in just the last few centuries. We are learning more and more about how the brain works, and coming up with explanations for the weirdest behaviors.

Thought control is here. There are already pills you can take that will change the way you think. You already dose yourself with those chemicals: alcohol and sugar and many other things. But there are even more specific chemicals that manipulate the production of basic chemicals in the brain and change people’s thoughts and behaviors.

Are you against thought control? I hope not. I mean, you are crazy enough as it is. I’d hate to see you behave without any self control at all! The id of Josie!!! Scary thought!

Marketeers know very well how to influence your behaviors by non-chemical means because they understand very well why you behave as you do. Every time you buy one of their products, you vote for thought control. Chances are that when you cast your vote in November, you’ll be responding to finely-crafted thought control, even as you think you’re voting for personal freedom.

I agree with people saying we ask “why” to understand, but I think we also ask “why” as an expression of our inability to understand. It is a desperate attempt to insist that the world makes sense at a time when all sense has gone out of it. No explanation is really going to satisfy us, but looking for one restores a sense of indirect control. And that manifests in attempts to prevent a recurrence that have been mentioned.

@thorninmud @wundayatta I am sure you folks are great in real life, but speak for yourselves when it comes to thought control. Pretty creepy.
I am fully aware that people all over the place are trying to influence my choice of action. But the thoughts that precede the action are exclusively mine. They are totally under the control of something intrinsic to me, not because of something intrinsic to them. Even if I respond to their will because they point a gun at my head, it is my choice to do so. But there is no way that they can know with certainty why I make my choice, even if the gun makes it seem obvious.
Anyhow, here is your GA, in spite of you calling me crazy or imagining that I do not understand why I vote or buy.

There is an ongoing study by The Gallup Organization that is a collection of various characteristics on personalities. They have culled it down to 34 different characteristic types. We all have various degrees of each type. The top five for each person is what they refer to as Strengths.

These Strengths are so intrinsic to the individual that they often don’t recognize it. They also have a tendency to assume that others have it as well. On the flip side, if one of these Strengths isn’t high up in the ranking, then it can be hard to relate to the person that does have it. It is difficult to understand their actions because that is not the way we would handle that situation.

Probably the most common example (and unrelated to Gallup’s study) is the Introvert vs. the Extrovert. The Introvert’s thought process is to think something through before speaking. The Extrovert prefers to talk through their thought process out loud. They may come to the same conclusion, but they can drive each other insane with how that process is carried out.

If this question is purely about heinous crimes, then I have to bow out and leave that to the experts.

As people already said, to understand why things happen, and work from there to prevent/go on/whatever. If we didn’t seek to comprehend, we’d be no better than the Inquisition. Like if you’re pulling out weeds, you gotta grab the whole root, not just pluck off the leaves, am I right? Not the brightest example, but plenty of good answers above.

@josie I am speaking for myself. Thought control is creepy. I have experienced it. And I’m willing to bet you have to, although you may not realize it. A lot of what you think is you is really chemicals. It has nothing to do with choices you make. Even if you choose to ingest the chemical, you do not choose the thought changes those chemicals create.

But I have gone from wanting to die, to being unable to think of dying in a day. All thanks to a chemical kicking in. It is very creepy. But I am grateful for it.

What would you think? Would you want help changing your thinking? Or would you rather do it on your own, taking the risk that you might end up dead? Your bet might be a decent one. Only one-fifth of people with this particular brain chemistry disorder die, so four fifths don’t. If you did survive, you could say you did it on your own. For a lot of people that’s pretty important. You?

I suppose you’re just being ironic in asking this, right?

@josie I think we might be thinking that after a number of good answers to the riddles we face in life, we will finally figure out what it’s all about (if it’s about anything in particular). Asking questions helps us alleviate the “human condition” i.e. the fear of life as a conscious entity. The world is messed up and asking even the lamest questions can give one a sense of some stability, even if it’s just for a moment.