Dan Ariely is a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University and the author of Predictably Irrational. His research focuses on how to tweak human behavior -- and that depends on understanding what shapes human behavior in the first place. He says, "Let's say we go to a bar, and we see people that are dating. We also notice that the place is noisy, that it's dark, that it's crowded, that there's alcohol: all sound observations.
But now, as a social scientist, I want to think of it like a Newtonian physics problem and say: "what are the forces at work? What pulling people in different directions that is showing up as an interest in being in this place?"
Maybe going to a noisy place helps people overcome moments of awkward silence. Maybe being in a loud place allows people to sit closer to each other, and from time to time whisper or talk in each other's ear.
Maybe being around a lot of other people offers some sense of safety -- but also enough activity to keep one from feeling like the center of attention. And so forth.
(I found this in Rob Walker's The Art of Noticing (p. 46))
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