All Of These Things Are Just Like The Others

You may have seen a recent article about the "Hipster Effect."  That is, a scientist has mathematically explained why hipsters look the same, even though they are trying to be individual.

The explanation is this: assume that everyone in a community wants to avoid any trend.  You also assume that, like most people, it takes a while for an individual to realize that a trend exists (that is, you don't assume there is a trend to wear red suspenders just because you saw one person wearing red suspenders; it takes a while to notice a pattern.)  When you simulate such a community, they eventually fall into a rhythm where everyone realizes there's a trend, switches to the opposite of the trend, notices that trend, switches, and so on.

It's an interesting concept: it's a lesson in how patterns can have very non-obvious causes, and a lesson in how difficult it is for an individual in a large population to avoid being part of large movements.  But I don't think it alone explains the phenomena of individualistic people looking the same.

In a world where you can easily distinguish yourself in a myriad of different ways, it's not likely you'd create a trend that way.  That is, if you're tired of everyone wearing white, wearing black isn't the only way to distinguish yourself; you could start wearing 1970's style rollerskates. Or wear an ironic neckerchief.  Or carry a clarinet around.

Okay, there is the possibility that avoiding trends itself becomes a trend. That is, you might try to avoid clothing trends by choosing your clothing based only on practicality and comfort.  If enough people do that, then comfortable, practical clothing might be seen as a trend, and adopted by people who choose their clothing based on fashion.  That's sort of what happened with Grunge era fashion.

I remember a Sociology prof observing that loners often look like other loners, though he explained it in terms of psychology: everyone has a need for both individuality and belonging, but different people have different amounts of each need.  So individualistic people don't completely reject membership in any group, they just have less of a need than most people.  So for them, the ideal solution is to join a smaller group. If you're in a subculture, you can feel individual while still maintaining a sense that you belong to something.

That seems to be a better explanation than some sort of comedy of errors in which people end up the same in an attempt to be different. That sounds like something that would be the premise of an SNL sketch or a Twilight Zone episode.