History Main / BizarreAlienPsychology

* Protectors, Outsiders, Puppeteers, Kzinti and other aliens from Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' tales are definitely this to varying degrees. The Outsiders being the really out-there example that nobody else can truly get and who make even the Grogs look understandable (which they pretty much are not). All think differently enough to humans (and each other) to trip themselves and those they interrelate with up, even if they do share some head-space, sometimes. It's made clear again and again that [[HumansThroughAlienEyes we are this to them, too]].

* The Martians in ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' are reported to have a very different way of thinking than us, including the concept of [[{{Neologism}} "grokking"]] something: to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed, to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience.

One of the common ways that humans and aliens differ is that they tend to think in a ''very'' different way to humans.

* As noted by Literature/CiaphasCain ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!'''), the Tau of Warhammer40K will actually fall back from a contested objective if diplomatic means have failed and taking it would take too great an expenditure of men and material, completely anathema to Imperial commanders, who would rather die where they stand than retreat[[note]]or at least, this is the case with the more zealous and/or stupid Guard generals. Smarter commanders do exist, they're just not as prominent.[[/note]]. The Eldar, being prescient also often fall back and use such tactics against their more brutal enemies.

** The Craftworld Eldar have serious obsessive tendencies, and their culture is structured to use this constructively. The same Eldar can come across as very different people depending on what Path he's on, because they draw from different parts of the psyche, and staying too long in one career is risky because there's a chance they'll walk too far down the Path and be psychologically unable to leave it.

* The reason octopus intelligence is a source of excitement in the scientific community is how far removed (from an evolutionary stand point) from relatively well understood other intelligent animals (who have a tendency to be social). The evolutionary pressures that created the octopuses' intelligence is believed far different than the evolutionary pressure that gave us ours. It's almost like having a sentient alien, so this is probably one of the closest to real life examples in terms of creatures that are intelligent on a level that at least approaches sentience for quite some time. Or the scientific community is only excited about the biology at work behind its brain (for the same reason), or both.

** most of the alien races in the Draco Tavern stories are this, to varying degrees. The Chirps are either benign despots or monumental liars, and no-one has any real idea which; the Gligstithoptok breed human meat in hydroponic tanks for food, but have a strict taboo against actual killing. The Folk lease areas for hunting and are good company afterwards, but too dangerous to approach beforehand; Bazin either has a profound philosophy or is basically an inter-galactic stuntman, and so it goes on. Rick Schumann, the bartender, is also this; he allows the press in when it would profit him and his only real motive is to make money from his clients, and how he ever arrived in his role is never really explained.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''. Motie mediators assigned to human emissaries go mad, or Crazy Eddie as they like to call it, trying to comprehend how they act. The closest they get is a sub-class of mediators who act as economists.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''. Motie mediators assigned to human emissaries go mad trying to comprehend how they act.

** The Ood are a telepathic race that are linked by a telepathic song translated by a hive brain. They have a secondary brain which they hold in their hands at all times. Manipulating their main brain, cutting off their outer brain, and replacing that brain with a translation orb can give the them the appearance of seemingly being [[HappinessInSlavery cattle-like, happy servants]].

* As noted by CiaphasCain ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!'''), the Tau of Warhammer40K will actually fall back from a contested objective if diplomatic means have failed and taking it would take too great an expenditure of men and material, completely anathema to Imperial commanders, who would rather die where they stand than retreat[[note]]or at least, this is the case with the more zealous and/or stupid Guard generals. Smarter commanders do exist, they're just not as prominent.[[/note]]. The Eldar, being prescient also often fall back and use such tactics against their more brutal enemies.

Supertrope to HiveMind and InhumanEmotion. Related to PlanetOfHats, in the sense of a culture all thinking the same way resulting in "one" mindset for everything. Frequently overlaps with BizarreAlienBiology if the brain producing this psychology is radically different. Expect BlueAndOrangeMorality to show up a lot. Often highlighted by HumansThroughAlienEyes.

** In ''Literature/{{Embassytown}}'', the Ariekei can't even conceive of a single isolated mind, and, despite learning the language, humanity can't even begin to communicate with them until someone stumbles across the trick of having identical twins speak in two-part harmony. When a pair of folks who ''aren't'' identical twins show up who nevertheless seem to be able to communicate, the result begins to drive the aliens mad.

* One of the twists of Creator/PeterWatts' ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' is the discovery by the human explorers that humanity is pretty much the only race out there with a concept of self, reason and such things as art... which the aliens see as an abomination of infection and have decided to eliminate humanity because it hurts them.

Supertrope to HiveMind. Related to PlanetOfHats, in the sense of a culture all thinking the same way resulting in "one" mindset for everything. Frequently overlaps with BizarreAlienBiology if the brain producing this psychology is radically different. Expect BlueAndOrangeMorality to show up a lot. Often highlighted by HumansThroughAlienEyes.

** The B5 novel ''Clark's Law'' features the Tuchanq, a race who lose their sense of identity (and then become insane) if they rendered unconscious. Since they're old enemies of the Narns, when they arrive on station, a riot breaks out, and the security forces use stun guns to break it up. It doesn't end well.

* The Prophets in ''{{DeepSpaceNine}}'' are disturbed by ''linear time''. They can't understand how a being could live from moment to moment ''without knowing what will happen in the future''. Because to them it's a TimeyWimeyBall. Sisko resorts to using baseball to explain that humans can act without knowing the future.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Lower- to mid-level telepaths like Lyta Alexander and Talia Winters don't like to go very deep into alien minds. It's... not a comfortable experience, as demonstrated at least once on the show when a P-5 telepath scans a Narn, and practically craps herself.

** The ''Literature/{{Foreigner}}verse'' is centered around a human ambassador to another species, he has to train himself to think like them.

* In ''OrionsArm'' almost nothing else thinks like baseline humans. The Tol'ul'h for instance managed to combine politics and opera into a performance art called "polmusic". Within the Terragen sphere [[TheSingularity "Singularities"]] are defined as the threshold at which an intelligence becomes so smart that anything below that line cannot possibly comprehend their thought processes (and there are entities as high as S6).

** Beholders have two brains. For some reason they process their data through the emotional part before transfering it to the logical part. Which means, if something is against a beholder's beliefs (which, through genetic memory always amount to AlwaysChaoticEvil racist monster) it won't ever get far enough to apply to its logic.

** In ''Literature/{{Embassytown}}'', the aliens can't even conceive of a single isolated mind, and, despite learning the language, humanity can even begin to communicate with them until someone stumbles across the trick of having identical twins speak in two-part harmony. When a pair of folks who ''aren't'' identical twins show up who nevertheless seem to be able to communicate, the result begins to drive the aliens mad.

''"And the Mind Below was more recent still, an artifact of both Turusch and Sh'daar technology, a merging of Minds Here into a single, more-or-less unified instrumentality."''\\
--''Literature/StarCarrier: Earth Strike''

''"And the Mind Below was more recent still, an artifact of both Turusch and Sh'daar technology, a merging of Minds Here into a single, more-or-less unified instrumentality."''
--> -- ''Literature/StarCarrier: Earth Strike''