ABS 2023
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Fidgeting and Displacement Behavior – two sides of the same evolutionary coin?
Sydney Chertoff1, Tyler Bonnell2, Mia Thiessen1, Halle Heth1, Jean-Baptiste Leca1. 1Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada; 2Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Observing a behavior differs from describing and understanding a behavior. Our comprehension of a behavior is derived from the description provided, morphing over time as information is compounded, sometimes creating barriers in our understanding. Fidgeting is a recognizable, yet elusive behavior to describe due to its various manifestations. It is used across disciplines and associated with multiple affective states, blurring our concept of the behavior. Adjacent to fidgeting is displacement behavior, performed by non-human animals in response to acute arousal. At the observable level, these two behaviors share a striking resemblance. However, they have scarcely been compared operationally and seldom functionally and theoretically. We conducted a systematic review in which we examined how authors addressed these behaviors in their work. Using a word-embedding technique, we developed a “map” of words relating to, and including, "fidgeting" and "displacement" to identify patterns in the usage of these words. From there, we can start to dissect why we differ in our communication about these two behavioral categories and how we move forward analyzing these behavioral categories.�