Sub Cultures.

The other day I was driving behind a motor cyclist and noticed that when passing another motor cyclist on the opposite side of the median, the cyclist put his hand down by his thigh and so did the other cyclist. This has always been interesting to me. My father has a motorcycle of his own. I once asked him why this happens. He told me that it is a sign of respect.

But how did this start? There is no rule that if one does not do this gesture than they are in trouble. So how do new motorcyclist learn this gesture?

One thought that I have on this is simply by mocking others. Mocking others is how people start out learning when they are just small children. I believe that this way of learning never goes away. I know that I have tried something new and did not know exactly what to do. How I learned was simply by following the first in front of me.

I also think that the reason the this gesture continues is that people feel pressured into doing to gesture. It is similar to peer pressure.

I am starting to experience the same thing in rock climbing. I am starting to learn the language like, matching or a rock or toe/heel the rock. These are things that as a outsider I would have never known what they are talking about. I never realized why I started using this language, it just felt normal when everyone around me was using it. Now I do not even think about the language..

I wonder if this is the same for others like motorcyclist. This gesture is so same and is not even thought about. It has just become part of someone's life and their personality. What would happen if someone did not return this gesture. Would the person that does not receive the gesture back even notice. Or would not receiving the gesture make a better impact on the person than if the gesture had simply been given.


I believe that not receiving the gesture would make a bigger impact because people tend to react to something that they are unhappy about rather than something that makes them happy. I have heard of studies that talk about this, that people will tell around ten others about something that they are unhappy about rather than maybe two people they will tell about something that made them happy. This is interesting to me.