8 Scientific Reason Why People Are The Worst

6. You Need To Feel In Control

Unless you're one of the few hippies that genuinely just go with the flow, you're probably the same as most of the human population in that you have an almost neurotic obsession with feeling as though you're in control of a situation. This is completely normal and nothing to be ashamed of, no matter how many self-help manuals try tell you otherwise.

Studies have shown that our need for control is written into our biology. When we feel as though we're in control of a situation, everything is hunky dory, our stress levels are low and our immune systems even work better. However, when that goes down the pan, the brain essentially throws a massive tantrum. Cortisol (the stress hormone) levels soar, brain function jams and everything from our immune system to our pain threshold goes out the window. We may lash out to try and gain control back or even start to engage in behaviours like "learned helplessness" which will make us even less able to deal with situations in the future (thanks, brain). In the real world, this translates into people punching each other on aeroplanes.

In fact, this need for control is so strong in humans that, if we don't have it, we'll just make it up. A 2008 study found that people who lack control of a situation are more likely to imagine patterns and derive meaning where there is none. They will literally see and hear things that don't exist to try to project some kind of order on the world again. If that isn't pathological then nothing is.