Now and then, I'll see an adult running and when I click on them it says "running away". I've never been able to catch them before they started this action to know what it is he's (it's been only men so far) running away from. BTW, I don't have any women with "parenting" checked!

Any ideas?

There are two possible reasons. One is that they've been approached for a "kiss" by a woman and they don't like the idea. You say that you don't have any women with parenting checked, however.

The other reason is that they have something in their dislikes that causes them to run away. Perhaps a builder who is asked to move rocks will have "rocks" as a dislike, or a farmer set to fishing will have "fish".

I have seen a villager with "fish" in his "dislikes" suddenly running away from the food bin!! the smell, I suppose!

Sometimes with certain dislikes a peep will run away when another peep passes that is carrying the disliked item.

That's amazing

Ok, I just saw a guy "running away" and checked his dislikes. He dislikes fruit. He's a scholar BTW. So I said ok...maybe he spent all of his time with the fish! I put him on the fruit tree...no problem He harvested the fruit. Put him on the blackberry bush. No problem. He harvested blackberries. So...back to square one.

Could he be running away from someone who is arguing or complaining? I've seen those two actions, but have never waited around to see who they were complaining to or arguing with and what the result might be.

He's a Scholar, which means he's mastered farming. Scholars don't focus on just the task you have them checked to do, they also do other things that they've learned how to do, including farming. If the farming routine tells him to get fruit, he'll sometimes freak out and run away. You can override his dislike (sometimes) by putting him on the thing he dislikes to pick it or what-not, but really, it's just an issue with his dislike. Just make him research or something and laugh at him every time you see him run away. =P

I had someone run away from the food bin once. I checked his dislikes, and it showed fish. A woman had just walked past him, taking a fish to the food bin

I've got a kid who does that, she has no dislikes, no-one arguing or anything, she just spends a lot of time "running away". Perhaps she's unhappy at home!!

Dansmot, there's an action by kids that says "running about". Are you sure that not what you are seeing?