Definition of "contrarian"

Christopher Hitchens is bored by the epithet contrarian, which has been trailing him around for a quarter of a century. What he is, in any case, is an autocontrarian: he seeks not just the most difficult position, but the most difficult position for Christopher Hitchens.

2010, Martin Amis, The Observer reprinted in The Rub of Time (NY: Knopf, 2018), p. 334

Kierkegaard had no university career, and Nietzsche was a professor of Greek and Roman philology who had to retire because of ill health. Both were individualists, and both were contrarians by nature, dedicated to making people uncomfortable.

2016, Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails, Other Press, page 17

However, to succeed as a contrarian, you have to be able to time trades in exactly the opposite direction of the majority. This means you have to move in when everyone else is fearful, and step back when everyone else is euphoric.

2010 December 17, Michael C. Thomsett, Getting Started in Stock Investing and Trading, John Wiley & Sons, page 174

The second part explores the normative forms of adolescent resistance and contrarian behavior that vex parents and teachers alike. This discussion is within the context of chapters that look at the ways in which parenting and teaching for moral development can positively make use of these normative challenges.

2005 January 15, Larry Nucci, Conflict, Contradiction, and Contrarian Elements in Moral Development and Education, Psychology Press

Yet at the same time, 401(k) traders became more contrarian in their response to falling markets during the crisis. Therefore, the increased sensitivity to market volatility was offset, in part, by a tendency to 'buy on the dips' in response to falling markets.

2012 September 27, Raimond Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell, Mark J. Warshawsky, Reshaping Retirement Security: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis, Oxford University Press on Demand, page 115

Then I discovered that there could never be a single “I” who could speak for me, I could only communicate an aspect of myself: sometimes more friendly, sometimes more contrarian.

2013 February 12, Phillip Lopate, To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction, Simon and Schuster