The Outside Edge. Kelsey Robert

sensitive people become the wallflowers. They detest social situations while becoming ‘morbidly afraid of having to give a speech or perform in public’, says Goleman. So focused are they on their own sensitivity, they can also become insensitive to others' feelings.

      And while some learn to overcome their timidity, others develop social anxiety that lasts a lifetime: always feeling on the edge of the group, socially anxious and alone in a crowd.

      Cynicism. A chicken-and-egg propensity perhaps, but outsiders – by definition – observe things differently. We notice alternative aspects of a situation, usually more negative or troubling elements that others ignore (perhaps deliberately). This can work in our favour – as we'll explore later. But clan life likes conformity. So anyone spotting what shouldn't be spotted (perhaps what others are trying to hide), and vocalizing it, is likely to find themselves censured and potentially ostracized.

      Of course, cynics may perceive and potentially exaggerate negativity. And that reinforces any nascent sense of distrust we feel towards others. Yet there's a wider concern with respect to distrust: that we're inwardly reacting to a sense of powerlessness. We look at societal structures and hate them simply because they feel like foreign impositions locking us out. And that makes us susceptible to conspiracy theories: to convictions that dark forces control our lives, which is a viewpoint unlikely to encourage integration.