Behaviors

Sitting in my room this evening I was in a mood to introspect and one thing that instantly came to my mind was the way people behave in different situations. Living with 178 students with varied backgrounds (academically and geographically) it has been a hell of a ride, trying to understand human behavior. Working in various teams from the committee to the academic groups to the various interest groups in college one has to deal with people of various temperaments and working styles.

One thing that amuses me the most is that though people are expected to behave rationally, they do just the opposite. I think the reason for this that there is an underlying insecurity among people about something or the other which makes them behave in a way in which they are not expected to. However, in doing so they expose that very insecurity of theirs which would otherwise have been concealed had they been a bit rational in their behavior.

There could be a number of reasons for this insecurity like people not being comfortable with themselves, not being able to accept certain shortcomings in themselves, trying to be someone else so that people form a certain perception about them. For example a studious, serious person will try to be humorous just to be a part of a group, or a jovial, happy go lucky person will try to behave like an intellectual so that people don’t think that he’s good for nothing. Now what these people don’t understand is that in trying to be something else the group might not accept them anyway. Also a group of friends requires all sorts of people. It’s got to be a healthy blend of serious, intellectual, jovial, humorous people. Each one brings something to the table and each has his own importance in the group. The moment people can get rid of these insecurities and accept that each individual is different and everyone has some shortcomings, I think they’ll start behaving more rationally.