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How would you describe someone who doesn't worry about what other people think? Someone who has the confidence to think for themselves. It could be a quality or adjective. One word preferred

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Voting to close as general reference. OP includes two viable options (independent and confident) and can find countless more by using a thesaurus. – onomatomaniak Jan 10 '12 at 21:12
This same question got lots of responses on Dec 19, 2011. I don't know how to post a link to it. – Julia Jan 12 '12 at 4:00

closed as general reference by onomatomaniak, Marthaª, Gnawme, Callithumpian, Lynn Jan 10 '12 at 23:17

This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

4 Answers

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Maverick was popular in the last U.S. presidential election cycle, though the candidates to whom it was applied would probably not be called free spirited or nonconformist, which have whimsical and countercultural connotations respectively.

If individual always acts without external input, I'd call him or her a lone wolf.

If s/he simply can't be bothered with external input, nonchalant.

If s/he wants to strike down convention actively, iconoclastic.

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+1 for nonconformist – MετάEd Jan 10 '12 at 22:20
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One cliche answer is free spirit, or simply spirited. In some contexts, perhaps irreverent.

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Idiomatically, he "marches to his own beat."

Self-assured would also work in this context. Self-assured can have either either positive (he is confident) or negative (he is deluding himself) connotations.

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I don't know if I've ever met "self-assured" with a negative connotation. – Marthaª Jan 10 '12 at 21:17
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Apathetic, nonchalant, indifferent, detached, disinterested, unconcerned, oblivious, "cool."

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Some of these have negative connotation. – Marcus Adams Jan 10 '12 at 20:56
I would argue in context, all of these have negative connotations. – Affable Geek Jan 10 '12 at 21:08
Yeah, the only ones of these that could possibly have positive connotations are "nonchalant" and "cool", and the latter is (still) informal usage. – Marthaª Jan 10 '12 at 21:18

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