why rolling your eyes is so instinctual when you are annoyed or frustrated

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My 17 month old daughter has started rolling her eyes during moments of frustration or when she is annoyed with me or my husband. There’s no way, at 17 months old, that that is intentional, I imagine it’s more instinctual. And, tbh, when I find myself suppressing an eye roll of my own, it feels like I’m fighting a natural urge. Maybe I’m just dramatic?? Lol

In: Biology

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Not everyone rolls their eyes. It’s a cultural thing, and babies are extremely good at mirroring what adults around them do (in fact, this is how we learn to do things!).

Edit: To add to the above, OP I think you find it so instinctual because you’ve probably picked up the behaviour of rolling your eyes when annoyed/frustrated from pretty early on, and have probably reinforced that by actually doing that action when feeling annoyed, frustrated, etc. At this point, it’s become nearly muscle memory to you, and feels extremely instinctive. My point above wasn’t to invalidate how it *feels* instinctive to you, but only to point out how this must have happened, and that it doesn’t necessarily a thing in many other cultures around the world.

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