30 Unbelievably Strange Encounters With Random Strangers That These People Still Can't Believe

Unfortunately, there are people out there who are somehow entirely blind to social norms and will flagrantly break them without a thought. In a few cases, this could be simple ignorance or lack of ability to read social cues. Everyone knows someone who is probably well-meaning but ends up being downright annoying to be around. 

But many of the cases listed here go much further than, say, a loud belch at a dinner table or an awkward question about one’s love life. These encounters veer into downright antisocial behavior, which at “best” are a nuisance and at worst, could be seen as a crime. Traditionally, this is seen as part of a personality disorder, but more contemporary psychologists believe it could, instead, be a result of certain issues in upbringing. 

The generally accepted cause of antisocial behavior is upbringing or a lack thereof. This is a sort of double-edged sword, as it lets us pinpoint how to prevent it, but unfortunately, it offers little hope for people who are already adults. The upside is the policymakers, social workers and just people who live in a community can all do their part to help, but it also means they generally have to suffer at the hands of existing, antisocial adults. 

The rapid social changes brought on by technology have made it hard to track exactly what stimulus ends up causing kids to start behaving poorly. In the age of regular TV consumption, some studies found that for every additional hour of TV a teen watched, the risk of them exhibiting some antisocial behavior rose by roughly 30%. However, as most parents now know, young people aren’t really watching hours and hours of TV, but it’s unclear if, say, video games or streaming has the same effect as TV used to. 

It’s not fair, however, to pin all the blame on media. Media only raise a child if the parents are absent in some form, which might be a more significant trigger than, say, Cartoon Network or Minecraft. Even more significantly, parental abuse is pretty closely tied with the victim “passing on” the abuse to another, creating a spiraling cycle of violence and bad behavior. Even smaller things, like poor nutrition and poverty, can cause an environment where normal social behavior is not learned, leading to the sorts of adults we see in these stories. 

There are also some genetic factors that ultimately might lead to people behaving in ways that others find annoying or downright horrible. The bottom line is that antisocial behavior, ultimately, needs to be cut off at the source. This means that all of us have to look for ways to help dysfunctional families, to make sure children can live in a safe environment and that psychological help like Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is available to those in need.