Religion
In reply to the discussion: Real respect for others beliefs [View all]marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Like I said, it's part of social communication. It likely had survival value in our tribal days. People who intuitively understood the motivations of others could gain social status, or avoid/win in situations of conflict and anticipate how other are likely to react to your own actions. These intuitions are partly inherent, for example, if someone raises their fist to you, you understand that they are angry and likely to hit you, you don't need to ask what their motivation is.
Or they can be social, for example if someone hands you evangelical literature, you understand they are attempting to proselytize you, not handing you a random piece of paper found on the street. You know that the person believes you are need in salvation, and is assuming you need to read it. Nothing needs to be said. The paper IS the communication.
This is how social communication works. You are at a significant social disadvantage if your mind does not work this way. You may not even realize how much of a disadvantage it is, because you will be missing a large part of the generally assumed social context occurring around you. Psychologists even have a name for this - Theory of Mind. We intuitively construct theories about what goes on in other people's minds. The theories are based on genetics and learned social constructs. Like I said, not everyone does it, but the people who don't often find themselves at a social disadvantage. People who are good at constructing accurate theories usually have high emotional intelligence.
So the problem for Cartoonist, is not that he may have assumed a motivation, but that there is a cultural clash between what he believes to be an acceptable interaction and what the woman believed to be acceptable. This cultural clash is actually part of the larger cultural wars going on in our society right now, this one being between a growing atheist group and an older evangelical Christian group.