• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Researchers in the Netherlands discovered an even stronger link between nonconformity and fear. In 2009, they published their finding that when a person learns that his opinion differs from group norms, his brain emits an error signal. The signal is produced by the same area of the brain engaged when someone faces financial loss or social exclusion. That signal, the researchers said, triggers a process that can impel the person to conform to the group, changing his opinion even when the group opinion is wrong (as in the Asch experiment).

These scientists took MRIs of volunteers’ brains as they evaluated the attractiveness of a series of faces. After the volunteers rated a face, they were told the “group” rating, a fictional number manipulated by the scientists. Thirty minutes after the experiment, the researchers unexpectedly asked the participants to rate the faces again. The participants who conformed the most to the group were those whose brains had emitted the strongest error signals when they learned the ratings. The researchers concluded that a person’s tendency to conform is partly based on his brain’s response to social conflict; the strength of the error signal determines the threshold that triggers conformity. “Deviation from the group opinion is regarded by the brain as a punishment,” Vasily Klucharev, the study’s lead author, said, which “explains why we often automatically adjust our opinion in line with the majority opinion.”

Nonconformists, therefore, aren’t just going against the grain; they’re going against the brain. Either their brains aren’t taking the easy way out to begin with, or in standing apart from their peers, these students are standing up to their biology. In their struggle to stay true to themselves, the featured characters in this book ultimately were not deterred by the emotions or physical sensations caused by the brain’s error signals. Blue expressed unconventional theories, Regan came out, Danielle went alone on a school-sponsored trip. Simply by being cafeteria fringe, these defiant outsiders were braver than they knew.

WHITNEY, NEW YORK | THE POPULAR BITCH

At a winter break party thrown by a Riverland alum, Luke and Whitney got drunk. Whitney tried to convince Luke to have sex with her in her car, but he didn’t want to be rude to the partygoers. Whitney tore out of her car, slammed the door, and went back into the house, drunk-crying and smiling at the same time.

“Yeah, Whitney!” said Spencer, and slapped her palm.

When Luke walked in after her, the prep guys feigned enthusiasm. “Yeahhh, woooh!” they shouted. “Yeah, Luke!” Spencer yelled obnoxiously, and tried to give Luke a high five.

Luke, still angry, walked by Spencer, muttering, “Nah, man, it’s not like that.”

Whitney kept drinking. She was in the kitchen with some of the popular guys and an older girl when Spencer said, “You know, Whitney, my brother’s been talking about you all night.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” the girl agreed. “He’s been really lonely since [his girlfriend] broke up with him.”

“Really?” Whitney tried to pay attention through her drunken haze.

“I heard he has a huge dick,” the girl said.

“REALLY?”

“Yup. I’ve seen it.”

“I can’t because of Luke,” Whitney said.

“Whitney, girls would kill to be in your position,” Spencer said. “He’s so much better than Luke. Luke’s just stoner trash.” He badgered her about Luke being “weird and different.”

Whitney’s head was foggy. Were her friends sincere or attempting to sabotage her relationship with Luke? “I don’t know.” She turned to the girl. “You make the decision for me. You’re like my big sister.”

Whitney was fighting desperately to keep her status in the clique. Earlier that week, Whitney had IMed Bianca to ask if anything was going on. Bianca said that several people were going out for lunch. Thanks for inviting me, Whitney thought, and met Bianca, Giselle, Madison, and Bobby at the pizzeria. When Seth (who was now Giselle’s boyfriend) and another popular guy showed up and asked if anyone wanted to go to the school’s basketball game that