Resisting this hardwiring for conformity causes us emotional distress—literally. A neurological study showed that nonconformity activates the amygdala and produces what the authors describe as “a pain of independence.”10 To avoid this pain, we pay lip service to being original, but we become the by-products of other people’s behaviors. It’s like that Chinese proverb: One dog barks at something, and a hundred others bark at that sound.
