Many older theories of philosophy and psychiatry would predict difficult outcomes for outsiders and would recommend against being one if possible.

Plato believed that acculturation, which is the psychological change that takes place when a person blends into an unfamiliar culture, was damaging to one's sense of self. This reasoning was continued by psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson, and Carl Rogers.

Outsiders often face particular hardships, like distrust by insiders. People at the margins of society often bear the brunt of hostility.

The world is full of outsiders: students at university far from home, immigrants to a new country. Many American workers became outsiders when they quit their jobs in the Great Resignation.

But because it was voluntary doesn't make it easy. Being an outsider can be lonely and diffic...