Our fear of standing out might have something to do with our knowledge of the tall poppy syndrome. It's a term that describes hating people who we think are "too big for their boots," who flaunt their success, and who "need to be brought down." Coined as a Roman military term, a tall poppy is someone who stands above the crowd.

Wanting to see accomplished people fail can result from a sense of inadequacy on an individual scale. "People like to see tall poppies fall if they deserve to fall, or if the observer has low self-esteem," Norman Feather, a psychology professor at Flinders University in Australia who has researched the topic extensively, said. "That's where a bit of envy or resentment enters in."

The consequence of the tall poppy syndrome is that it can make people of drawing attention to themselves. We learn — more implicitly than explicitly — that standing out from others can put us at risk of questioning, criticism, rejection, and even ostracism.

But I argue that these cases are something different. One, it's Halloween. Two, a lot of the people in the pictures have been led to believe others would also wear costumes, and three, it's Halloween. Why should anyone hate on someone celebrating Halloween?!

Papa_Skittles, one of the people featured in the list, can back me up on this one. He said he likes Halloween because it's the one day of the year when it's acceptable to wear whatever you want. So naturally, Papa_Skittles decided to wear a costume this year as well. "It wasn't Halloween but it was the last day of the workweek (Thursday) and it was the day the workgroup 'agreed' to dress up as smurfs while our boss would dress up as Gargamel," Papa_skittles told Bored Panda. 

"I was expecting others to dress up [too] but no one else did," he said laughing. "My [Smurfette] costume is the Goodwill special of a flower dress turned inside out, a blue tracksuit with a clean mop head from the custodial closet (Walmart ran out of blonde wigs). I had to improvise that one."

At first, the man was a little confused. "When the third guy showed up, however, I realized it was a prank," Papa_skittles said. "But I decided to keep it going. Too many people these days don't know how to laugh at themselves. I could have gotten upset or even angry but what would that have accomplished? I also got to see a lot of other people laugh from different departments as a blue Smurfette was walking up to them. People need a hearty laugh every now and then. It's good for you."