My thoughts on the herd mentality….
We human beings have evolved from the apes… We are animals definitely… civilized may be! I have seen this being lived and relived by all of us each day.
In fact in my teaching career it has come as an example proving my theory all the time. Let me share this with you, you can try it too. Ask a question that the group may not be very familiar with and pick one person to answer it. Don’t give your feedback or let the group know that that was not what you were looking at as an answer and cliff hanger it to another person from the group. The second person’s answer will always be picking up cue from the first person. Try it with some more people and you’ll get very innovative wrong answers inspired by the first person’s thoughts.
You may wonder how so many people answer on the same lines as the first person spearheading it. Not once I see it happening almost always and across all age groups. My students have been in the age group of 17 years to 50 years. And I do share this theory with all my students. Make it happen in their class and make them realize how sub consciously we do it.
We take this mentality to every sphere of our lives be it in the family, among friends, peer group, colleagues and even on social issues. We get influenced by someone else’s opinion so much so that we forget that each one of us have the power to use the grey matter bestowed on us. Why do we let ourselves be the second fiddle?
We need to accept the difference of opinions and the power of a good debate. Ultimately what comes out of a healthy debate is something that’s sustainable, viable and acceptable by all.Even on social causes we have the media going gaga over issues that hardly need so much of our newsprint and airtime….. but we will live with our herd mentality!!
