[goshx]

> Also, anyone who claims not to understand this is either lying, engaging in some form of virtue signalling or has some sort of mental illness.

Let’s assume you are right and there are only these three possibilities, what kind of mental illness would you suggest I have?

Since I was a little kid it never appealed to me to do what most of my friends were doing just because they were doing it.

A fourth option would be that I never cared about it enough to actually look for the reasons.

[grkvlt]

I'd suggest that if you genuinely don't understand this sort of social thing instinctively, then you're probably on the autism/aspergers spectrum then. I really wasn't trying to be offensive towards you or anything, I just probably forgot some extra caveats... Basically, this sort of social reasoning is (usually) hard wired into your (typical) human being, and has been since prehistory. But mental disorders like autism seem to mess up social perceptions and interactions, masking these instincts. Fortunately, in that case, I've found it's possible to work around the issue by simply researching what the natural instincts and drivers are for the typical human, hence my suggestion of referencing an anthropology textbook.