When it comes to the appeal of the 'Questionable Tweets' account, the perplexing nature of the project is definitely part of the draw. Although this may seem like somewhat of a paradox as bewilderment is an extremely frustrating emotion, and let’s face it, no one really enjoys feeling confused.
But the page is quickly growing and gaining a solid fanbase on the platform with the funny, weird, and downright ridiculous images creators share that serve as the perfect mood booster and works like a bandaid for our bored souls.
However, this does beg the question: how come these bizarre jokes are so entertaining? We were curious to learn why confusing content immediately jumps out and grabs our attention, so we reached out to Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, performance coach, and creator of Mental Drive. Klapow works with individuals and organizations across the globe to help them improve productivity, health, and achieve their goals.
Being the founder of a psychological well-being initiative that helps people access the best-in-class psychological tools to live healthier, more fulfilled, and successful lives, he was more than happy to share his insights on the matter.
According to Klapow, confusion is a symptom of uncertainty. "When we don’t understand, when we are 'confused,' we are in a state of uncertainty. [It] is one of the most distressing human emotions. It signals a lack of predictability, a lack of safety."
In fact, a team of researchers has even published a study that shows our stress levels max out when uncertainty is highest. The volunteers in the experiment were asked to play a computer game where they had to overturn rocks that might have snakes hidden under them.
If they found one, the appearance of a snake was accompanied by the delivery of a painful electric shock. While they tried to learn the animal habits to avoid the consequence, the researchers made sure that uncertainty would remain high. The results revealed that people would rather know they’ll definitely get an electric shock than wonder about the possibility of getting one later. Or in other words, uncertainty is more stressful than predictable negative outcomes.
Klapow noted confusion may have similar effects as it makes us feel less grounded or safe mentally with what is being presented to us. "That is processed as uncertainty. And that is a recipe for not only frustration but also worry, anxiety and distress."
But there are also upsides to feeling completely addled when encountering something difficult or way too ridiculous to understand. It turns out that experiencing some mild bewilderment is beneficial, and this phenomenon can be explained by the fact that confusion belongs to the family of knowledge emotions.
"If we see confusion as a temporary state, and if we believe there is an answer, and insight or actions we can take to transition us to a state of clarity, then confusion goes from being a stressor to a challenge," Klapow added.
"If our internal self-talk is 'I don’t understand but I know I can think about this and get to an answer,' then we move forward in a motivated, challenging mode." But if we tell ourselves "I don’t understand, I don’t know what to do, and I am never going to be able to get this", we are bound to feel a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, and distress.
"Some situations we will assess as solvable, some we won’t. And that differentiates whether we feel motivated to solve the confusion or distressed over the confusion state," the psychologist said.
Confusion makes us frustrated, no question about it, but this frustration can spark an interest to delve deeper into the subject to learn more about it. When we asked Klapow whether we should embrace confusion rather than avoid it, he told us: "When we find ourselves in a state of bewilderment, it’s important to remind ourselves that we have many options for interpretation. And how we interpret the situation that is confusing us will determine how we feel and what we may do."
