What's Everyone Else Thinking?

Social Influences

How many times do you make a realization, notice a connection between things, have an idea or just a random thought or comical perspective on something, yadda yadda, and just kind of keep it to yourself rather than share it with those around you? Then you tell yourself its something weird or not important and dismiss it. You don't pursue it, think about it or research it further.

How many times does something interest you, but you don’t think your friends, family, or other members of your social group would find it as interesting, want to tag along with you to do it, or give two shits at all, so you decide to keep it to yourself?  But not only do you keep it to yourself, you choose to let it go. Dismiss it as something not worth pursuing, “because no one else is.”  As if, "if anything was worth anything, someone would already be talking about it and spreading the word. If something was true and great, it would be all over the news. It would be common knowledge."

How many times do you KNOW someone or something is wrong, yet do absolutely nothing about it? You KNOW this, yet choose to remain silent or begin to doubt yourself or your thought process when just a short while ago you were so CERTAIN.

Everyone's heard of peer pressure, and everyone knows social groups and societies conform to a set of social norms.  What most people don't know is some of the psychology associated with it and how bad it actually is.  Below is a 2 minute video depicting one of the Asch Conformity Experiments that demonstrates this normative social influence.

In this video, a volunteer is told he's going to be taking a visual perception test with line length.  The volunteer does not know however, that the other participants are actually actors. The participants are asked in sequence to match the line on the left, with the same length line on the right, of which there are 3 choices.  When all of the actors in the group begin to choose the wrong answer, the person being studied initially sticks with his guns and goes with the answer he knows is right.  Shortly after however, he conforms with the group, choosing the answers he's certain are incorrect.

Normative social influence is the willingness to conform publicly in order to attain social reward and avoid social punishment.  This occurs en masse.  People conform publicly, even when they believe or KNOW the group is wrong.  They go against their own beliefs and convictions out of fear of being punished, disagreed with, ridiculed, made fun of, judged, secluded, etc.  

This occurs in every aspect of our lives, and affects nearly every choice people make.  If this occurs on something as simple as the obvious length of a line, imagine how it affects the REAL problems of the world.  If this occurs on something so simple, something so blatantly obvious as to which answer is the correct one, imagine what people do when they aren't even slightly informed on matters... They just go with the flow, "everyone else is doing it!"  "My friends and family believe this and the majority is doing things this way, and believes this is right, and this isn't very important or needs my attention, clearly they're onto something, or else people would have figured it out already and spoke up."

But who are those people?  We all are.  Who remains silent or ignorant.  We all do.

A variation on the above experiment has taken place in which all of the actors do not give the same answer.   Even if only one of the actors gives a different opinion from the rest, the participant conforms only 5 to 10% of the time.  This finding shows the true power that a dissenting minority can have on others.  In other words, SPEAK UP, even if you feel your voice will be drowned out by the masses.

People remain silent out of fear.  People remain ignorant out of trust for the world and people around you, or willfully ignorant due to fear and laziness.  Speak up.  Speak your mind.  Ask questions.  Give your thoughts and views and be open to receive everyone else's.  Be yourself.  Accept others.  It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong.  The goal should be to stimulate discussion, ask questions, learn and arrive at the best answers, and understand different perspectives, not just accept everything around you and stuff your thoughts, concerns and confusion deeper down into your head.

You think the above video is ridiculous?  You should check out another conformity experiment below which deals with riding in an elevator....

Environment

Who here, upon stumbling across my blog had first reactions of "oh wow, this looks really girly" or maybe some of the more homophobic and intolerant of you said "hmm, this looks kinda gay."  Who decides what colors are girly and what colors are manly?  Why do girls love dolls and boys love toy cars?  Do you really think it's innate?  Human nature?  Do you really think girls are born innately with the expectation to do all the cooking, cleaning, child rearing and being submissive to men?  Do you really think every boy is born loving sports and violence?  No.  It is the environment in which they are brought up in.  Genetics play a factor, don't get me wrong, but genetics merely tweak the statistical varieties of behaviors, values and emotions. Environment is what creates, preaches, forces and reinforces them.

This article discusses a study showing that both girls and boys under the age of two prefer pinker tones and rounder shapes.  Only later on in life did the preferences begin to shift, "arising from socialization or cognitive gender development rather than inborn factors."  This means ENVIRONMENT is what shapes a person.  Girls love pink because we surround them with pink, boys prefer blue because we surround them with blue.  In the early 1900's this trend was actually reversed.  Imagine that...

The same article discusses another part of the study where boys and girls at 12 months BOTH preferred dolls to cars. "The male preference for cars over dolls, or avoidance of dolls, emerges later, suggesting that socialization or cognitive development, rather than inborn factors, causes the male avoidance of feminine toys."  Things aren't the way they are "because they've always been like that."  Environment is just about everything.  Nature takes over when environment is lacking.  Boys are told not to play with this or do that because that's for girls.  Girls are told you should play with this and not do that because that's for boys.  Children are curious and open minded to everything.  This should be embraced.  How can people find and follow their passions in life when their entire cognitive process is conditioned and clusterfucked from the get go?

Humans learn based almost solely on copying, especially at the early, spongy stages of cognitive development.  The video below illustrates an experiment with chimpanzees and human children.

In the first part of the study, the children and chimps are shown a box, and it is demonstrated that after a series of tapping and motions with a stick, a treat can be obtained from one of the little doors.  Both the chimpanzee and child successfully copy the demonstration and obtain the treat.

In the second part of the study, there is a structurally identical box, however this time it is made of see-through material.  The chimp sees that the poking and tapping is unnecessary, and immediately obtains the treat from the door.  The children however, were predisposed to copying, even when it means doing something silly and taking unnecessary steps.

"Apes don't just mindlessly act, they also understand something more about cause and effect." 
"While apes can copy, most researchers believe they don't teach each other." 
"Why do children imitate slavishly?"

- Because they expect to be taught.

What the fuck are we really teaching them?

Media

Mass media is one of if not THE biggest culprit of pushing social influence.  Television shows, movies, "news" programs will publicize some sort of deviance from the social norms of a group or society.  In doing so, it reinforces the social norm about that action and requires the deviant individual to either conform regardless of his preferences or beliefs or publicly reject the norm.

Mass media is great at publicizing and attacking deviance from their preferred societal norms, reinforcing them as such, but they also help create many of the norms we have today.  One of the easiest and most noticeable example today is in society's definition of the "ideal body."

How many brainless people do you idolize or try and develop a relationship with because you find them attractive?  How many brilliant people do you think are out there whose thoughts, ideas, theories and passions get overlooked because you don't find them attractive?

In order to be a high end fashion model you must meet strict and ridiculous requirements usually consisting of having a height of 5'10" or more, and weight of 125 pounds or less.  Never mind the fact that the average height of American women lies around 5'4" and their average weight is 165+ pounds.

What do you think would happen if every single magazine in which there is an attractive woman on it, and every single fashion and runway show consisted of women who were 5'4" and 140 pounds rather than 5'10"(+) and 120(-)?  What do you think all the self-conscience, want to impress-the-world with-my-looks girls would be striving for?  Do you think anorexia and bulimia would be as common as today?  How about confidence, self-esteem and self worth issues?  Give me a fucking break....

The only thing sadder than creating and profiting from this type of societal norm is the people who help to reinforce it.

Thoughts shape reality, but who's creating yours?