Yup, I'm wierd

The other day I was walking home from school. Now I am a relatively fast walker because I’ve got long legs, so I very typically pass many people on the way to and from school. During these processes, I realised a peculiar phenomenon…

When you are passing someone on a sidewalk, they will automatically slow down so that they don’t have to walk beside you. This is particularly true of that person happens to be wearing headphones listening to music. So this week I’ve been having some fun little experiments.

But today I decided to vary my pattern. Instead of passing, I matched their walking speed. I did this twice, both times to a guy. I walked beside him really fast, then slowed to his pace so we were walking together. The funny thing was that he kept slowing down so that I could pass him, and I kept slowing down to match his speed. But I didn’t make eye contact, I just kept looking forward…

Eventually, he sped up and so did eye, then slowed right down again. Eventually, I started to giggle, and so did the other guy, realising that I was being funny. Then I continued on my way, and I could continue to hear the other guy laughing…

It’s funny to see people’s reaction. This phenomenon occurs because of other people’s comfort zones. When someone enters into someone else’s comfort zone, we subconsciously try to get that person out of our comfort zone. In this case, I think that the guys were feeling threatened because they couldn’t figure out why I would try to match their walking speed without engaging in conversation. This whole situation made them very uneasy and raised their defences. But when they heard me laughing, they would realise that I was joshing them, and thus they would relax their defences and laugh as well.

Hopefully you share my sense of humour and can appreciate my odd-ball-ness.