Rebellious people: 9 traits of those who defy the norms

There are those who prefer to break conventions rather than limit themselves to the monotony of what is already known.

Rebellious people are much more than a category of individuals who defy certain norms. Often, and even if it sounds exaggerated, the progress of history has made great strides forward thanks to them. They are, so to speak, those who teach others that it is possible to do something that no one had ever thought of doing before.

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

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 become too small. 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 ceases to make sense? Probably, the majority will continue to respect those rules, because that is what has always been done and questioning that requires energy and willpower that not everyone has, on the one hand, or because we simply do not realize that we can question those rules, on the other. In these cases, those who break conventions are the rebellious ones..

It is this psychological profile that has a greater capacity to detect aspects of society in which tradition and norms unnecessarily suffocate 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 rebelliousness have the following characteristics.

1. They do not get along well with authority

Although their daily life forces them to live according to the rules dictated by certain authorities (by the simple fact of living in a State), they do not take this fact well. This causes them to break these rules, which are considered basic, relatively often, exposing them to considered basic, exposing themselves to some kind of violence.

In short, the more rebellious a person is, the more he or she will tend 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 authority, since they consider that many of the rules that the latter enforce are arbitrary and unjustified.

2. Creative predisposition

Rebellious people do not necessarily have to be skilled in any of the arts, but they do have a predisposition to be creative, even if it is an unpolished form of creativity. For example, they often use objects for purposes other than those for which they were designed.

3. They reject many of the usual labels

For rebellious people there are phenomena of life 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, for example, often the relationship they have with a person.

4. They reject monotony

Much of the monotony that is so prevalent in today's society is due to simple habit, or obligation. This means that rebellious people can be out of tune, because just as other individuals do not have to change their daily habits, the former do not have to be satisfied with always doing the same thing. do not have to settle for doing the same thing over and over again..

5. Their life is based on openness, not on transgression

The meaning of life of rebellious people is not based on transgressing the rules just for the sake of it. If so, this would be a false rebellion based on the reaction to what happens. In any case, their conception of what it means to live is broader than that of the rest of the members of the community. than that of the rest of the 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 be in constant competition with others is repulsive to them, as it is a logic that leads to entering a vicious circle of work, tying us to a dynamic that is totally beyond our control.

In other words, see competitiveness as an indirect ruleIn other words, they see competitiveness as an indirect rule, whereby 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 them adapt their behavior to the expectations of others. does not make them adapt their way of being in society.They reject the idea of having someone else define from the outside what they should be. The only exception to this occurs when not adapting one's behavior to the expectations of others would entail an objective, very high cost and a high probability of suffering these consequences.

8. They do not judge others unnecessarily.

In the same way that they enjoy their own autonomy, rebellious persons avoid making value judgments about very personal decisions others make about how to guide their lives. about how to guide their lives.

9. They don't feel guilty about not fitting into the dominant aesthetic.

Appearances count for a lot, but that doesn't cause rebellious people's self-esteem to waver when they choose not to conform to those standards.

Bibliographical references:

• Emmons, R.A.; Diener, Ed (1986). Influence of impulsivity and sociability on subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 50 (6): pp. 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): pp. 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