Individual human behaviour is defined as a bodily process of a human that involves co-ordinated contraction of striated muscles controlled by the brain. When attempting to understand and influence behaviours, such as waste recycling and tobacco use, there is a need to go beyond the purely physical description and characterise behaviours in terms of their functions, goals, interactions with other people or the physical environment, or outcomes.

The Human Behaviour Ontology (covering ‘outcome behaviour’ in the upper level) precisely characterises the classes and attributes of human behaviour in detail. The Human Behaviour Ontology is currently under development.