Why do humans have a weird "favorite" mentality

[fazool]

This is truly a curiosity of mine.

I remember being a kid and my favorite color was orange. Today my favorite dessert is ice cream. As a really little kid, I remember making important self-defining decisions about which cars/toys/games/shirt/tree/etc were my favorites.

Now, I have a favorite guitar. I think about this as I walk in the park "hmmmm that's my favorite type of tree"



I was drinking coffee watching the birds at our bird feeder just now and thought "my favorite bird" and realized "hey, I'm a late middle aged man. I don't need to have a favorite bird!"

We never even think about a favorite child - that is just psychologically not even possible.

But why do we, humans, have this define-myself need to have favorites.

[BahPa]

Do you have a favorite guitar forum?

[HHP]

Who knows what insignificant, at the time, events and associations embed themselves in us as preferences, favorites, dislikes, etc. Just be glad there are things that bring you pleasure versus indifference.

[GHS]

Ever watch dragon flies in the summer? Even they have favorite places to perch all the time. guess its everywhere.

[Silly Moustache]

Well, I respect your opinions, and this predilection for favourites, but I don't get it myself.

As far as guitars are concerned, I suppose I would have to admit that my Collings 12 fretters are favourites, but not to the exclusion of my other items.

I tend to wear mostly blue ... but not exclusively.

My tastes in food (when I have taste buds) are mainly Mediterranean but not exclusively - I do like lamb, and fish, but I'll enjoy pork and chicken, and sometimes even beef.
My tastes in veggies is pretty broad

My politics and beliefs are pretty determined, I'll admit.

I guess the things that I could list more easily would be things that I positively dislike......how much time have you got?

[philjs]

Originally Posted by GHS

Ever watch dragon flies in the summer? Even they have favorite places to perch all the time. guess its everywhere.

Favourite is such a loaded word. Does a dragonfly have a "favourite" perch or is it a consequence of feeding and/or mating territoriality, locations and availability of perches and predator avoidance behaviour? What happens to that "favourite" perch when a predator, say a dragonhunter, moves into the area? How about if a competing territory holder gets taken out and its "favourite" perch becomes available?

We might have a "favourite" guitar but why does it always seems to be one that we already have? Just like the dragonfly, our "favourite" guitar is constrained by the availability of guitars in our area, in our experience, and our financial (and/or marital!) situation.

It's also amazing how fast we'll dispose of our "favourites" when something better comes along! My "favourite" guitar is a Lowden O23c but if someone offered to trade me an O23c fan fret then I'd give it up in a flash (and would instantly have a new "favourite")!

Phil

[Bob Womack]

I've definitely got some of those preferences that prevent objectivity but at the same time I'm not a person for superlatives, and that makes for some interesting situations. For instance, if it is red, I'm sold. I love red everything. But if someone was to ask me what my favorite color is, I would have a hard time telling them!

Favorite food? Don't know, but on my birthday I always hope for my wife's chicken parmigiana.

I can't tell you why we are built this way. Contact the builder.

Bob

[BahPa]

Each and every organism seeks it's own unique set of characteristics for their
environment(habitat). Food, water, shelter, space, and arrangement, I think this can explain favs to a degree. The things we favor, satisfies one or more of those requirements.

[srick]

Well in the sitcom, "The Big Bang theory," Sheldon explains his favorite spot as follows:

Sheldon's spot is the position on the couch he has claimed as his own, putting it in a "state of eternal dibs". Sheldon has described his spot as the "single point of consistency in an ever changing world", and has even said that his feelings for his spot are much greater than those for his mother.

In the Pilot episode, Sheldon explained to Penny that he chose his spot as "in the winter that seat is close enough to the radiator to remain warm, and yet not so close as to cause perspiration. In the summer it's directly in the path of a cross breeze created by open windows there, and there. It faces the television at an angle that is neither direct, thus discouraging conversation, nor so far wide to create a parallax distortion."

For whatever that's worth.

best,

Rick

[chitz]

Fazool, you're my favorite poster!

[jseth]

I think it is pretty easy to understand the whole "favorite" dynamic... each of us has our own preferences, and those preferences evince themselves throughout our lives. Although many would say that a very young infant doesn't "know" what it wants or prefers, I believe we all start this process far sooner than most would imagine.

One thing that has helped me A LOT in the past 15 years or so, is embracing the idea that what each of us does/wants/has/strives for, is for the simple reason that we each believe that we will feel better by having/doing/striving for those things... I look in my own life and, sure enough, that is exactly true for me...

This idea, or hypothesis, explains so much about my life... lets me view others in a more accepting light and assists me in "letting go" of all my opinions and pronouncements regarding others' actions, and to just tend to my own affairs...

[buddyhu]

I think you have over-generalized here. Not all humans have this "favorite" mentality. I recall having such a mentality when I was younger (teens and 20's especially)! but it started to drop away in my 30's, and I really don't find that to be true for me now. When I say something is "my favorite", I am usually fibbing a bit in order to have something to talk about.

[Brucebubs]

If you grew up in the 1960's it was important to have a favorite Beatle.

Mine was John.

[Gasworker]

Oh oh.... careful Fazool at your age this kind of thinking leads to a sports car a brand new Young wife then ultimately a baby seat and mini van and no time for posting on the AGF. I've seen it happen.

[amyFB]

There is something viscerally satisfying about some things that makes them be "favorites " of mine.

A particular green hue ; m7b5 chords; a poignant phrase;


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