8 Scientific Reasons Why Teenagers Are Completely Insane

2. Why They're So Whiny

Tuh. Kids these days don't know how lucky they are, what are they whining about? Well, it turns out that teenagers' brains respond to stress differently to adult brains, meaning that they actually find stress more, er, stressful. It's all down to that pesky prefrontal cortex again. This is the rational part of our brain that calmly balances actions and consequences and enables us to manage our emotions logically. Unfortunately, the damn thing jams up in teenagers if put under even a little bit of stress, forcing them to process information in a different part (as we've discussed). You can literally put a stressed teenager in an fMRI machine and watch it stutter and falter for no apparent reason (it should also be noted that "stress" here means pretty much any decision making). Did someone ask you to pick up your clothes so that they could do the hoovering? As a grown up, you automatically run through the thought process of "the reason they want me do do this thing is so that they can do a thing that will mutually benefit us". You do this without noticing and immediately come to the conclusion of "yes, of course I will do that thing". When a teenager is asked the same thing, these leaps of logic are closed off to them. They can't see why you're asking, it's obviously because you just want to make their life difficult and can't you see that they're busy anyway GOD. The grown up equivalent would be your boss asking you to stay late and work on something that they're not going to need. The point is that teenagers can't figure out anyone else's motives, and so when you refuse to hand over the keys to your brand new car for them to "borrow", the only reason that could be is because you don't want them to be happy, not because you don't want it stinking of McDonalds and potentially lodged in a hedge. They can overcome this intellectually by puzzling it out, but the emotional response will always be there, hence the whining.