I remember hearing or reading Justin Theroux describing his ADHD-type childhood behavior issues as, like, the first time he would know about his inappropriate impulses was when he was acting on them. He said he once threw a brick at a taxi and had started crying even before it hit the car.
Obviously the ethics of this are fraught, especially with adults, but it rang true in terms of how people’s minds work. I think we’ve all tried to use our house keys at ATMs etc., because we’re sort of loose collections of impulses, which are mostly coordinated, but can sometimes fire out of sequence.
I can think of a few times when I’ve seen essentially normal people do things as inexplicable (albeit not as consequential) as this. And air travel puts people in a pretty abnormal headspace.
