Rebellious people: 9 traits of those who challenge the norms

Rebellious people are much more than a category of individuals who defy certain norms. Often, and although it sounds exaggerated, the progress of the story takes great steps forward thanks to them. They are, so to speak, the ones who teach others that it is possible to do something that no one has ever thought of doing before.

In this article we will see what are the traits and behavior styles that define rebellious people.

• Related article: "Types of people: 13 basic personality characteristics"

challenging the rules

Living in society means learning to respect the needs and rights of others, but there are times when the rules and conventions we impose on ourselves are too small for us. These are those cases in which the rules of the game constrain us for no reason, corseting our ability to enjoy life without giving us anything in return.

What happens when a set of rules stops making sense? Most probably will continue to abide by those rules, since that is what has always been done and questioning that requires energy and a spirit of will that not everyone has, on the one hand, or because we simply do not realize that we can question those norms, on the other other. In these cases,

those who break the conventions are the rebellious people.

It is this psychological profile that has a greater capacity to detect aspects of society in which tradition and Norms unnecessarily stifle the repertoire of attitudes and actions that we can have (and enjoy). Let's see how they do it.

The 5 traits of rebellious people

Those who are characterized by their rebellion present the following characteristics.

1. They don't get along with authority

Although the day to day forces them to live according to the rules dictated by certain authorities (for the simple fact of living in a State), they take this fact badly. This means that they break those rules quite often. that are considered basic, exposing themselves to some type of violence.

In short, the more rebellious a person is, the more tendency they will have to question the norms and rules that others take as something natural and unalterable. For better or worse, this gives rise to behaviors that in some cases are considered disruptive. The result is that they are more likely to have clashes with the authority, since they consider that a good part of the rules that the latter enforce are arbitrary and not justified.

2. creative predisposition

Rebellious people don't have to be skilled in any of the arts, but they do have a predisposition to be creative, even if it's a crude form of creativity. For example, they frequently use objects for purposes other than those for which they were designed.

• Related article: "The psychology of creativity and creative thinking"

3. They reject many of the usual labels

For rebellious people there are life phenomena that do not deserve to be limited to a word. Using these linguistic formulas serves to communicate and understand each other better, but in return, we limit the meaning of what we really want to express. That is why they prefer to express themselves in other ways to communicate certain things, such as, frequently, the relationship they have with a person.

4. They reject monotony

Much of the monotony that is so frequent in today's society is due to simple habit, or obligation. This makes rebellious people out of tune, since like other individuals they do not have to change their habits in their day, the first They don't have to settle for always doing the same.

• You may be interested in: "5 ways of thinking that can limit your mind"

5. His life is based on openness, not transgression

The meaning of life for rebellious people is not based on transgressing the rules for the simple fact of doing so. If so, this would be a false rebellion based on the reaction to what happens. In any case, his conception of what it means to live is broader than that of other members of society: they do not want any door to be closed to them if there is no good reason for it.

6. They reject competitiveness

The idea of ​​having to constantly compete with others causes them rejection, since it is a logic that leads us to enter a vicious circle of work, tying us to a dynamic that totally escapes our control. control.

In other words, see competitiveness as an indirect norm, by which people try to adapt as much as possible to what is expected of them, so that the result is the satisfaction of rules that no one has chosen.

7. They do not act according to the expectations of others

What others think of rebellious people does not make the latter adapt their way of being in society, since they reject the idea that someone defines from outside what one should be. The only exception to this occurs when not adapting the behavior to the expectations of others would entail an objective, very high cost and with a high probability that these consequences will be suffered.

8. Do not judge others unnecessarily

In the same way that they enjoy their own autonomy, rebellious people avoid making value judgments about highly personal decisions made by others about how to guide their lives.

9. They don't feel guilty about not fitting in with the mainstream aesthetic.

Appearances count for a lot, but that doesn't shake the self-esteem of rebellious people when they decide not to conform to those criteria.

Bibliographic references:

• Emmons, R.A.; Diener, Ed (1986). Influence of impulsivity and sociability on subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 50 (6): p. 1211 - 1215.
• Eysenck, H.J.; Eysenck, M.W. (1985). Personality and individual differences. New York, NY: Plenum Press
• Rentfrow, P.J.; Gosling, S.D.; Potter, J. (2008). A Theory of the Emergence, Persistence, and Expression of Geographic Variation in Psychological Characteristics. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3(5): p. 339 - 369
• Steinberg, L. (2007). Risk Taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives From Brain and Behavioral Science. Current Directions in Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00475.x