Originally Posted by royalflash

in the transactional analysis theory in psychology this is a classic Parent-Child transaction. According to this theory there are three basic parts to a persons personality- the Parent (a collection of recordings of what a personīs parents did and said when the person was small); the Adult (the data processing logical part) and the Child (an internal recording of a personīs feelings as a child). The Parent and Child are fixed during childhood and cannot be changed later. By not wearing a helmet you attracted this other cyclists Parent. The other cyclist then replayed their Parent recording and admonished you for not wearing a helmet (just as the cyclists own real parents would have).This then pushed you into the Child part of your personality where you felt sorry and stupid for not wearing a helmet just as you did when your parents told you off for being naughty when you were a kid.

Without wanting to start another helmet thread it is your decision whether you wear a helmet or not. Use your Adult and make the decision.