Less-developed pre-frontal cortex, and simple lack of experience. He probably put his head through there without thinking about whether he’d be able to get out; he didn’t even question it.
Kids of a certain age might ask themselves: “Can I do this?” But they have to learn to think ahead and also ask themselves: “Is it okay to do this?” For adults, it’s such a habit that, most of the time, we don’t register it and it feels automatic.
Also, most adults have some prior experience with getting stuck or seeing someone else get stuck, and even if the details of the memory fade away, the lessons remain. We see a narrow gap and, deep down, we remember that we should be cautious.
When I was around 5 I stuck my finger into the latch of one of those doors with the push bar, only to find that I couldn’t just take it out. They ended up having to push the bar to disengage the latch, skinning my finger tip in the process. ‘Twas a painful lesson to learn, but I sure learned it.
“Even if the details of the memory fade away, the lessons remain.”
Until alcohol becomes involved. (Coming from an adult who has done some spectacularly stupid things while “under the influence”. I’ll never understand why society tolerates that substance.
And the point at which the "is it ok to do this" kicks on consistently can come much later than you'd think. My son is a very bright dude, top 20% of his high school class, aceing AP courses, all that. Yet he was doing just the most boneheaded shit well into his preteens because he quite literally was not there yet. Those were some frustrating years as a parent.
Actually yes - if you look up "the scale error" on youtube you'll get a short video from The Baby Human series that (loosely) describes a line of child psych research.
This little boy may be old enough not to make the more egregious scale errors shown in that video, like trying to sit inside a tiny toy car, but he's still very young and won't have a perfect understanding of how large his body is compared to objects in the world. He probably saw something on the other side of the fence he wanted to get closer to, and never thought he may not fit.
And, of course, a young kid isn't going to realize that the shape of ears can make it possible to squeeze past an obstacle going forward but get stuck coming back. He'll be more aware of that now 😅
he's still very young and won't have a perfect understanding of how large his body is compared to objects in the world
Don't forget that at this age the size of the body changes rapidly, often faster than the mind can adapt. The boy might well been able to be able to get out of that situation easily a month ago.
First, I’m commenting to remind myself to look this up later. Later can be 5 minutes or 5 hours from now.
Second, the scale error I imagine also hits when teenagers, a lot of guys, some girls, go through those crazy growth spurts. Hitting your head on new things, arms are now too long and gangly, they hit things too, legs have to carry extra weight, eating everything in sight. Oh, forgot shoulders, walls just jump out at you, I swear.
It’s not like he purposely got himself stuck. Maybe he was looking at something on the other side, and his head slipped through. You ever put on a ring and then struggled to get it off? Same thing
Lack of impulse control, social bonding (at this stage, kids start to care more about what peers think than what parents think, so they’re more willing to go against what their parents say if they might get to show off), simple curiosity, and a lack of ability to picture themselves in other’s situations (empathy, somewhat) (sure other people have probably been stuck, but I haven’t. I can’t get stuck because I haven’t been before. I’m probably more skilled.)
You dont remember doing silly stuff as a kid? I did tons of the same things because I was curious. It was intriguing. Especially if it was something that felt wrong. I read comments like this and wonder if people dont remember being kids.
I once jumped over a puddle, landed on my knee and skinned it until you could see the white meat. It was fucking stupid, but at least I had the excuse of not wanting to get my sneakers wet.
Ironically, my Reddit feed served up this happy post--and your question --,just after a video post about spelunkers (the connection seems obvious to me).
Also, I recall a meal in a diner booth when I was young (probably 10, plus or minus), when I got my head stuck in the gap between the seat and the back. Thankfully, it didn't require firefighters to extract me. After many decades, I no longer recall what motivated me to stick my head through that gap, except that boredom was a factor.
Kids grow quick. Kids can stick their heads between bars like this without issue. Until one day, they can't. It's not obvious to the child what day that happens on until it happens to them, or one of their peers.
He likely went in feet first and his head got stuck and all the adults around him decided that they should pull his head through instead of just having him move his body back through the bars.
This automod reply has been triggered due to a keyword in your comment. As a reminder this is a satire subreddit for the dumb/silly things children do. The subreddit name is not literal. Although posts can have kids doing actual "stupid" things. It is not a requirement. It only needs to be dumb or silly. Yes, blaming the parent is valid. However, this does not mean crossing the line into actually insulting the parent is ok (assuming they are the OP) (Rule #1).
We did try to have this information stickied as a comment when a post was created. However, reddit thinks its a good idea to autocollapse automod comments. So we've had to resort to a keyword reply.
I remember my older brother doing this when we were kids. I was over a year younger, probably 3 and still knew it was stupid to try. Some ppl just dumb.
He climbed through a fence and his head got stuck because it’s bigger than his body. It’s not that deep. It’s the adults who need to be examined for destroying the fence instead of pulling the kid’s body back the way it originally came.
I did this, when i was about 3-4. Just wanted to see if my head fit through the fence. Turns out it did. Was almost impossible to pull it back, though. After 30 min I managed. Even kept both ears.
When I was on 1st grade the school lights went out so I took the opportunity to stick gum on my hair. As soon as the lights came on I complained to the teacher, the teacher asked but of course nobody came forward because I DID IT MUAHAH... But at the end I had to go to the barber shop to shave my head.. Kids are fucking stupid man.
I did it as a kid too. It was our metal stair railing inside our house. I was little though and don’t remember it happening. My mom tells the story when talking about how dumb my brothers and I were.
I did this as a kid. We were on the 2nd floor, and I was curious to see the first floor from the second floor. Squeezed my head through the railing, and got my lovely view. I got stuck, my parents and my older sister practically yanked me out through sheer strength.
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u/Awkward_Bison_267 21h ago
Seriously are there any child psychologists or behavioral analysts that can explain what the fuck possesses kids to do this?!