displacement activity

American  

noun

Animal Behavior.

1. a behavior performed out of its usual context and apparently irrelevant to the prevailing situation, as eating when an unknown individual approaches, tending to occur when appropiate behaviors, as attacking or fleeing, are in conflict or obstructed.

---

displacement activity British  

noun

1. psychol behaviour that occurs typically when there is a conflict between motives and that has no relevance to either motive, e.g. head scratching

2. zoology the substitution of a pattern of animal behaviour that is different from behaviour relevant to the situation, e.g. preening at an apparently inappropriate time

---

Etymology

Origin of displacement activity

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

“Starting in early August, we resumed regular job displacement activity.”

From Washington Post

“Worrying about stuff like this was what her mother’s generation did as displacement activity from worrying about the real things happening in the world,” she thinks.

From New York Times

After another shapeless, meandering day of working from home, trying to read the entire internet by way of displacement activity, I know exactly what I need to help me destress: a cucumber and a teaspoon.

From The Guardian

Such is the need for displacement activity, thousands of miles from family in Pylesville, Maryland, up by the Pennsylvania line.

From The Guardian

The journey to the stadium; the rush to be in the ground or the bar or at home in time for kickoff; the people you see, the ones you watch with, the ones you play alongside; the routines and the superstitions and the displacement activity; surreptitiously checking your phone for the scores; watching “Match of the Day”; thirstily drinking in transfer news; feverishly scrolling through Twitter.

From New York Times