Extremely confused by BPM of songs. Tapping foot to the beat .... . How to know when to tap foot???

I am trying to learn how to tap my foot to the beat while playing guitar, So the other day I learned to play creep by stone temple pilots. It sounds like a relatively slow song and I assumed the bpm was around 54, I tried tapping my foot to that tempo and I just could not get it, I look up the bpm and find out it’s 108 bpm ! I try tapping to that tempo and boom it’s extremely easy for me. How would I ever find the right bpm to tap too if a song sounds extremely slow but bpm is fast ? Even listening to “I am the highway “by audioslave, I would tap my foot to the first and 3rd hat and 2 - 4 snare. But I come to find out it’s actually 174 , bpm and I’ve been tapping 87 bpm the whole time ! How do I know when to tap my foot when just listening to a song or playing ? is it ok to tap half the bpm or do I look like a complete moron tapping my foot half as much slower as the actual bpm of the song ?