NT's do the weirdest things!

Post Reply New Topic

I rode the bus home tonight and being Friday evening en route to the Las Vegas Strip I anticipated that the bus would be quite full. When it finally got there I was shocked by what I saw. The bus was packed like a sardine can. Both levels(it was a double decker bus) were totally seated and most of the standing room was taken. Being the person I am I decide to wait for the next bus rather than endure the stress of being forced to squish around people like that. Then a new bus pulls up right behind the first(the first hadn't left yet). I have never seen this happen before, but the new bus is showing the same route number as the first and so I intuit this is either the next scheduled bus and the first is so crowded that the second has caught up to it, or the company knows this route is so crowded at this time that they have 2 running to keep up. Nothing much of note happens until we get to the Strip. The rolling sardine can pulls up in front of us and people flock to it. Some even run right past my bus in favor of the crowded one. And I am shocked. I have never seen anything like this before! Why are they running past the empty bus to the crowded one? Are they really that stupid? Can they not tell that both buses are on the same route? Normal people confuse me.

Hear, hear

They may have not realized the second bus was running the same route.

I have a similar story. I was at a bus stop immediately after a "turn around point" where the drivers usually take their breaks. On occasion, two buses that run the same route will end up at the turn around point at the same time and go on break, usually because the first bus had been running behind due to traffic and so they ended up in the same place when they should have been on opposite sides of town.

I frequently boarded this route down the street and so knew there could be 40 people waiting at that stop, but at the stop I was at there were only about 10 people. The first bus driver ended her break and pulled out of the turn around area and up to the stop and people began to board the bus. I saw the lights go on in the second bus at the turn around area and figured that driver was just coming off of her break too. She began to pull out right before the first bus pulled away from the stop so I stepped back, let the first bus go, and then flagged down the driver to the second bus.

She stopped and opened the doors, and in a somewhat confused and annoyed manner asked "Why didn't you get on the other bus?"

I gave her the obvious answer "Because that bus is going to get crowded." Sure enough, by the time we got to the second stop, 40 people were trying to cram their way on to the first bus and the bus driver of the bus I was on didn't even bother and try to stop. I had the bus to my self until my stop.

I think that it might be a combination of NT's don't analyse day-to-day situations as much as us, and just get on the first bus that they see with the correct route number. Coupled with the fact that personal space is not as important to them as it is to us, and they don't mind the overcrowded factor so much.

Chronos wrote:

The problem is when NT's assume that your priority is the same as theirs. The bus driver here is assuming that you should have got on the first bus that you saw with the correct route number, and that you don't mind the fact that the other bus was overcrowded. Plus she was probably a bit lazy and annoyed that she had to stop again.

This is a perfect example of a day-to-day problem that arises because of the different priorities NT's and aspies have, and the poor mutual empathy that results. But the problem is that society looks at this type of situation subjectively and concludes that the aspie lacks empathy, and does not accept it's own shortcomings.

I think it could be fun for NTs to ride the crowded one.

Oh good - I don't feel so different from NTs now.

Actually, it's a simple evaluation. They decide that the second bus must be full, or out of service, or going to the wrong place.

How do they decide that? because no one else is getting on it.

A large part of NT behavior is assuming that if I do whatever everyone else is doing, things will probably work out.

It's herd behavior, and it's INCREDIBLY adaptive. Of course, it causes them to miss out on all sorts of opportunities, but it also keeps them all safely grouped together.

Or perhaps it would be that the crowded bus seemed 'safe'. It can be easy to doubt yourself, so after all, if so many people were on that bus for that route, how can so many people be wrong? The emptier bus is less sure so they may have instinctively gone for the crowded bus.
That could have been the logic.

They might also reason that they would be taking a chance on the empty bus. By seeing people (albeit lots of 'em) on the first bus - they know for sure that this bus is in service. If they bypass the first bus and approach the empty bus, they are taking a risk - the empty bus might be out of service (I have seen many, many times when the bus driver forgot to change their bus sign to indicate this). By the time they get back to the first bus, it might be packed full and they would be unable to get on or the bus might have already left.

The driver of the crowded bus is the one who should have been re-directing people, assuring them that the second, empty bus was indeed in service and travelling the same route. Bad on him or her for not doing so.

ialdabaoth wrote

Yeah, I definitely think that as well.

You know, I follow logic like this from time to time. If I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go, sometimes my only clue is where other people are going. If they're all avoiding a particular place, often there's a reason that I can't see from where I'm at.

Of course I learned this from going where the herd wasn't and finding myself out of luck and having to go all the way to the back of the line/herd/crowd and start over.

They could of all been from out of town?

Most likely they didn't know the second bus was going to the same place as the first. If they did, they would of mobbed the bus you were on. I savor those "ignorance really is bliss" moments.

Yes, it's definitely herd behavior, which seems to come so naturally for them.

That's how things work out, they don't need to make up their mind about anything in this way. If people would actually follow their own opinions and preferences, fashion would no longer exist.

Though i can't explain this trait in NTs (perhaps a particular gene we lack?) i've observed it over and over again. I don't think there's logic in this kind of behavior, but it seems to work instinctively.

In the given situation i would of course use my mind in the best possible way to avoid the crowded bus.

Las Vegas is a tourist city so maybe.

I find it funny (but not in an insulting way - I've contributed too!) that a bunch of aspies are trying to deductively analyse an obviously instinctive behaviour.

Yea, I was going to say the same thing - herd behavior. That's the only thing that could explain it. They think since everyone else is going to the other bus, then they better go, too. They must not stop to think about it very much. I would definitely analyze the situation, and upon realizing the less crowded bus was going to the same place, get on that one. But most people just go to where all the other people are.