0 an unnecessary activity that you do because you are trying to delay doing a more difficult or unpleasant activity:
Does hyperactivity, a constant grin and wild chatter indicate cheerfulness or mania, or is it displacement activity that masks insecurity or several, or all, or none of these?
Everything else is what psychologists call displacement activity.
There is a phenomenon in the animal kingdom that is known to zoologists as displacement activity.
Alcohol on flights is not there to help; it is a displacement activity to make one feel better and to counteract the fear of plunging from the sky.
Dancing may also be a displacement activity when the nest or young are threatened.
Displacement activities may also occur when animals are prevented from performing a single behaviour for which they are highly motivated.
