Conformity

Last year I took a psychology course and while most of it was relatively uninteresting and 101, near the end of the course we were introduced to some of the larger concepts in social psychology. There are some very interesting theories out there about what makes the human mind work the way it does.

Just to get you up to speed, you may have heard of the Asch experiments seeking to some extent to prove social dependance in humans. A sort of built in mechanism to ensure conformity and group normalisation. Strategically it makes sense for us to work this way, but it also marks up some very realistical borders to our potential.

In this following 10 minute presentation you are introduced to the basics in the studies of conformity.




It should be obvious that this is the natural part of our ways that ensures survival of the fittest, because in a social context the fittest might just be the leader. We see this in all pockets of nature.

What is interesting is how this should touch on your feeling of self-sufficiancy. Would it upset you to know that 37% of all people would stay in a room filling with smoke past their choking point, if at least 14 other people (actors) were sitting still in that room without reacting? Is this culture or biology?

What the goal is for me, is to upset the idea that people can trust their own decisions, because more often then not we choose to do something that is not in our best interest, simply because of some series of implications leading us to judge a course of action as the best suited one. This can be spurred on by group norms and pressure, but it does not dilute our responsibility for our own integrity on a theoretical level.

If we choose to part take in political, economical and sociological debates, we should be prepared to consider what part of our argumentation comes from others and what part comes from ourselves.