What kind of flyer are you? I hope you are not of the chatterbox type …although, if you are, please come forward: I think we need to talk. Not chat. Not screech. Talk.
Aircrafts seem to provide an ambience where some personality traits come to the surface more easily. I see my trips by plane as little social experiments. It’s like sitting and watching the fish go by in an overcrowded water tank (while being inside the tank as one of the fish).
Flying over the River Po (I suppose).
I have the feeling that people tend to assess on a specific behavioural pattern when travelling by plane. I think it’s a consequence of mental dissociation.
It is a psychological fact that your mind needs to dissociate from your situation when you are stuck in a metal box thousands of meters above ground level, confined in the smallest personal space you will ever tolerate in a social situation, with limitations as to standing up, turning, satisfying personal necessities (toilet, email-checks, uploads of selfies to Instagram).
Would you be conscious of your actual position all the time, you would probably freak out before take off, which wouldn’t make you the most pleasant travel companion in the eyes of your fellow passengers, believe me.
Luckily, dissociation makes the world a better place.
This basic coping mechanism allows humans to endure unnatural or uneasy situations – e.g. being forced to watch a wedding video or comforting your inconsolable friend while he/she goes on with that breakup story over and over again – with no significant psychic damage. Read More
