psychology of group behavior

For discussion of liberty, freedom, government and politics.
User avatar
mudflap
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3227
Location: The South
Contact:

psychology of group behavior

Post by mudflap »

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... dern-world

These are interesting (original article contains video links to the experiments):
1. THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Let’s start with the most famous. Beginning in 1963, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments now referred to as the Milgram Obedience Experiments.

The setting is simple, Subject A is told to conduct a memory test on Subject B, and administer electric shocks when he makes mistakes. Of course, Subject B does not exist, and the electric shocks are not real. Instead, actors would cry, ask for help or pretend to be unconscious, all the while Subject A would be encouraged to carry on administering the shocks.

The vast majority of subjects carried on with the test and gave the shocks, despite the distress of “Subject B”.

The Conclusion: In his paper on this experiment Stanley Milgram coined the term “diffusion of responsibility”, describing the psychological process by which a person can excuse or justify doing harm to someone if they believe it’s not really their fault, they won’t be held accountable, or they do not have a choice.

The Application: Almost literally endless. All institutions can use this phenomenon to pressure people into acting against their own moral code. The army, the police, hospital staff – wherever there is a hierarchy or perceived authority, people will fall victim to the diffusion of their own responsibility.

NOTE: They made a decent film about Milgram, and the backlash his experiments caused called Experimenter. In recent years there has been a major pushback on this experiment, with articles in the MSM attacking the findings and methodology and new “researchers” claiming “it does not prove what you think it does.”

*

2. THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Only slightly less famous than Milgram’s work is Philip Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment, carried out at Stanford University in 1971. The experiment set up a mock-prison for a week, with one group of subjects designated “guards” and the other “prisoners”.

Both sides were provided uniforms, and prisoners were given a number. The guards were ordered to only ever address prisoners by their number, not their name.

There were a number of other rules and procedures, detailed here.

In brief, over the course of the week, guards became increasingly sadistic, dealing out punishments to disobedient prisoners and rewarding “good prisoners” in order to try and divide them. Many of the prisoners simply took the abuse, and in-fighting began between “trouble makers” and “good prisoners”.

Though technically not an “experiment” in the purest sense (there was no hypothesis to test, and no control group), and perhaps impacted by “demand characteristics”, the study does reveal interesting patterns of behaviour in its subjects.

The Conclusion: Prison guards became sadistic. Prisoners became obedient. All this despite no real laws being broken, no real legal authority, and no real requirement to stay. If you give people power and dehumanise those below them, they will become sadistic. If you put people in prison they will act like they are in prison.

In short, people will act the way they are treated.

The Application: Again, endless. We’ve seen it all through Covid, if you start treating people a certain way, the majority will go along with it and blame the minority who refuse to cooperate. Meanwhile, police forces around the world were suddenly granted new powers, and promptly abused them because the maskless and unvaxxed had been dehumanised in their eyes. Those reactions were engineered, not accidental.

*

3. THE ASCH EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Another experiment in conformity, not as brutal as Milgram or Zimbardo, but perhaps more unsettling in its findings.

First conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, the setup is a simple one. You put together a panel of subjects, one real subject and a handful of fake subjects.

One by one the subjects are asked a series of multiple-choice questions to which the answer is always obvious, and all the fake subjects will get every answer wrong. The question is whether or not the real subject will maintain his own correct answer, or begin to conform with the group.

The Conclusion: While most people maintained their right answers, the “error rate” in the experiment group was 37% versus less than 1% in the control group. Meaning 36% of subjects eventually began to change their answers to align with the consensus, even though they knew they were wrong.

Around one-third of people will either pretend to change their minds for the sake of conformity or, more alarmingly, will actually alter their beliefs if they find themselves in the minority.

The Application: Staged or invented polls, falsified vote counts in elections, bot accounts on social media, astroturfing campaigns. Media headlines proclaiming “everyone knows X” or “only 1% of people think Y”.

There are a great many tools you can use in order to create the impression of a fake “consensus”, a manufactured “majority”.

NOTE: The experiment has been done a million times in dozens of variations, but perhaps the most interesting finding is that putting just one other person in the panel who agrees with the test subject seemed to reduce conformity by 87%. Essentially, people hate being a lone voice but will tolerate being in the minority if they have some support. Good to know.

*

4. FESTINGER’S COGNITIVE DISSONANCE EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: The least well-known experiment on the list, but in some ways the most fascinating. In 1954 Leon Festinger created an experiment to evaluate the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, his setup was again quite simple.

A subject is given a repetitive and dull physical task to do (originally turning wooden pegs, but other variations use other tasks).

After the task is complete, the subject is instruced to go and prepare the next subject (actually a lab assistant) for the task, by lying and telling him/her how interesting the task was.

It’s at this point the subjects are divided into two groups, one group is offered $20 to lie, the other only $1.

This is the real experiment.

The Conclusion: After lying to the fake subjects, and being paid their money, the real subjects take part in a post-experiment interview and record their genuine thoughts on the task.

Interestingly, the 20-dollar generally told the truth, that they found the task dull and repetitive. While the one-dollar group, more often than not, claimed to have genuinely enjoyed the task.

This is cognitive dissonance in action.

Essentially, for the $20 group, the money was a good reason to lie to their fellow test subject, and they could justify their own behaviour in their head. But, for the $1 group, the meagreness of the reward made their dishonesty internally unjustifiable, so they had to unconsciously create their own justification by convincing themselves they weren’t lying at all.

In summary, if you offer people a small reward for doing something, they will pretend to enjoy it, or be otherwise invested, to justify only making a small profit.

The Application: Casinos, computer games and other interactive media use this principle all the time, offering players very little pay off knowing they will convince themselves they are enjoying playing. Big corporations and employers can likewise rely on this phenomenon to keep wages down, knowing that low paid workers have a psychological mechanism that may convince them they enjoy their jobs.

NOTE: A variation on this experiment introduces a third group, who are paid nothing to lie. This group is not affected by cognitive dissonance, and will honestly appraise the task just as the well-paid group do.

*

5. THE MONKEY LADDER

The Experiment: Now this is a somewhat controversial addition to the list, but we’ll get to that later. It’s a very famous experiment you’ve probably heard cited dozens of times.

In the 1960s scientists at Harvard put five monkeys in a cage with a stepladder in the middle. Atop the stepladder is a bunch of bananas, however each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder they are all sprayed with ice-cold water. Eventually, the monkeys learn to avoid the ladder.

Then one monkey is removed and a new monkey is introduced. He naturally goes straight for the ladder and is set upon by the other four monkeys.

Then a second monkey is removed, and another new monkey is introduced. He naturally goes straight for the ladder and is set upon by the other four monkeys…including the one who was never sprayed.

They continue to replace each monkey in turn, until no monkeys are present who were ever sprayed with water, and yet they all refuse to go near the stairs and prevent all the new monkeys from doing so.

Now, the obvious conclusion here is that people can be conditioned to mindlessly follow rules they do not understand.

The only problem with that is that none of this ever happened.

Yes, that’s the controversy I mentioned earlier. Despite being easily found on every corner of the internet, despite magazine articles explaining it and animations recounting it…it never happened. The experiment appears to be entirely apocryphal.

No ladder, no monkeys, no cold water.

So while this supposed experiment doesn’t actually teach us about herd mentality, it does explain the modern world, because it shows us how easily a myth can be worked into a reality through sheer dint of repetition.

BONUS: MONKEY LADDER REDUX
That’s right, it doesn’t stop there, there’s another twist.

National Geographic did actually recreate the fictional monkey ladder experiment using people:


One subject walks into a doctor’s waiting room filled with fake patients. When a bell sounds, all the fake patients stand up for a second and then retake their seats.

After this process repeats a few times, the fake patients are slowly removed one-by-one until only the subject of the experiment remains. Then secondary real subjects are introduced one at a time.

The experiment seeks to answer the following questions:

a) Will the original subject stand up at the bell without knowing why?

b) Will they will continue to stand up when they are alone in the room?

c) Will they then teach this behaviour to the new subjects?

The answer to all three appears to be “yes”.

Now, while far less scientific than the other four experiments, I include this here for a very specific reason. The above video of the experiment doesn’t just record the conforming behaviour but describes it as possibly beneficial. Adding that herd behaviour saves lives in the wild and is “how we learn to socialise”.

A very interesting take, don’t you think?

So, while the fake monkey experiment that never happened was used to teach us about the perils of herd mentality, its nonexistence actually teaches us about the perils of non-primary sources and the group consciousness’s ability to confabulate.

Meanwhile, the real monkey experiment is used to sell us the idea that herd mentality does exist but is potentially a good thing. Raising the possibility the whole thing could have been staged, simply to promote conformity.

Allison
captain of 1,000
Posts: 2410

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Allison »

mudflap wrote: September 7th, 2022, 8:13 am https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... dern-world

These are interesting (original article contains video links to the experiments):
1. THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Let’s start with the most famous. Beginning in 1963, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments now referred to as the Milgram Obedience Experiments.

The setting is simple, Subject A is told to conduct a memory test on Subject B, and administer electric shocks when he makes mistakes. Of course, Subject B does not exist, and the electric shocks are not real. Instead, actors would cry, ask for help or pretend to be unconscious, all the while Subject A would be encouraged to carry on administering the shocks.

The vast majority of subjects carried on with the test and gave the shocks, despite the distress of “Subject B”.

The Conclusion: In his paper on this experiment Stanley Milgram coined the term “diffusion of responsibility”, describing the psychological process by which a person can excuse or justify doing harm to someone if they believe it’s not really their fault, they won’t be held accountable, or they do not have a choice.

The Application: Almost literally endless. All institutions can use this phenomenon to pressure people into acting against their own moral code. The army, the police, hospital staff – wherever there is a hierarchy or perceived authority, people will fall victim to the diffusion of their own responsibility.

NOTE: They made a decent film about Milgram, and the backlash his experiments caused called Experimenter. In recent years there has been a major pushback on this experiment, with articles in the MSM attacking the findings and methodology and new “researchers” claiming “it does not prove what you think it does.”

*

2. THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Only slightly less famous than Milgram’s work is Philip Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment, carried out at Stanford University in 1971. The experiment set up a mock-prison for a week, with one group of subjects designated “guards” and the other “prisoners”.

Both sides were provided uniforms, and prisoners were given a number. The guards were ordered to only ever address prisoners by their number, not their name.

There were a number of other rules and procedures, detailed here.

In brief, over the course of the week, guards became increasingly sadistic, dealing out punishments to disobedient prisoners and rewarding “good prisoners” in order to try and divide them. Many of the prisoners simply took the abuse, and in-fighting began between “trouble makers” and “good prisoners”.

Though technically not an “experiment” in the purest sense (there was no hypothesis to test, and no control group), and perhaps impacted by “demand characteristics”, the study does reveal interesting patterns of behaviour in its subjects.

The Conclusion: Prison guards became sadistic. Prisoners became obedient. All this despite no real laws being broken, no real legal authority, and no real requirement to stay. If you give people power and dehumanise those below them, they will become sadistic. If you put people in prison they will act like they are in prison.

In short, people will act the way they are treated.

The Application: Again, endless. We’ve seen it all through Covid, if you start treating people a certain way, the majority will go along with it and blame the minority who refuse to cooperate. Meanwhile, police forces around the world were suddenly granted new powers, and promptly abused them because the maskless and unvaxxed had been dehumanised in their eyes. Those reactions were engineered, not accidental.

*

3. THE ASCH EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Another experiment in conformity, not as brutal as Milgram or Zimbardo, but perhaps more unsettling in its findings.

First conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, the setup is a simple one. You put together a panel of subjects, one real subject and a handful of fake subjects.

One by one the subjects are asked a series of multiple-choice questions to which the answer is always obvious, and all the fake subjects will get every answer wrong. The question is whether or not the real subject will maintain his own correct answer, or begin to conform with the group.

The Conclusion: While most people maintained their right answers, the “error rate” in the experiment group was 37% versus less than 1% in the control group. Meaning 36% of subjects eventually began to change their answers to align with the consensus, even though they knew they were wrong.

Around one-third of people will either pretend to change their minds for the sake of conformity or, more alarmingly, will actually alter their beliefs if they find themselves in the minority.

The Application: Staged or invented polls, falsified vote counts in elections, bot accounts on social media, astroturfing campaigns. Media headlines proclaiming “everyone knows X” or “only 1% of people think Y”.

There are a great many tools you can use in order to create the impression of a fake “consensus”, a manufactured “majority”.

NOTE: The experiment has been done a million times in dozens of variations, but perhaps the most interesting finding is that putting just one other person in the panel who agrees with the test subject seemed to reduce conformity by 87%. Essentially, people hate being a lone voice but will tolerate being in the minority if they have some support. Good to know.

*

4. FESTINGER’S COGNITIVE DISSONANCE EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: The least well-known experiment on the list, but in some ways the most fascinating. In 1954 Leon Festinger created an experiment to evaluate the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, his setup was again quite simple.

A subject is given a repetitive and dull physical task to do (originally turning wooden pegs, but other variations use other tasks).

After the task is complete, the subject is instruced to go and prepare the next subject (actually a lab assistant) for the task, by lying and telling him/her how interesting the task was.

It’s at this point the subjects are divided into two groups, one group is offered $20 to lie, the other only $1.

This is the real experiment.

The Conclusion: After lying to the fake subjects, and being paid their money, the real subjects take part in a post-experiment interview and record their genuine thoughts on the task.

Interestingly, the 20-dollar generally told the truth, that they found the task dull and repetitive. While the one-dollar group, more often than not, claimed to have genuinely enjoyed the task.

This is cognitive dissonance in action.

Essentially, for the $20 group, the money was a good reason to lie to their fellow test subject, and they could justify their own behaviour in their head. But, for the $1 group, the meagreness of the reward made their dishonesty internally unjustifiable, so they had to unconsciously create their own justification by convincing themselves they weren’t lying at all.

In summary, if you offer people a small reward for doing something, they will pretend to enjoy it, or be otherwise invested, to justify only making a small profit.

The Application: Casinos, computer games and other interactive media use this principle all the time, offering players very little pay off knowing they will convince themselves they are enjoying playing. Big corporations and employers can likewise rely on this phenomenon to keep wages down, knowing that low paid workers have a psychological mechanism that may convince them they enjoy their jobs.

NOTE: A variation on this experiment introduces a third group, who are paid nothing to lie. This group is not affected by cognitive dissonance, and will honestly appraise the task just as the well-paid group do.

*

5. THE MONKEY LADDER

The Experiment: Now this is a somewhat controversial addition to the list, but we’ll get to that later. It’s a very famous experiment you’ve probably heard cited dozens of times.

In the 1960s scientists at Harvard put five monkeys in a cage with a stepladder in the middle. Atop the stepladder is a bunch of bananas, however each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder they are all sprayed with ice-cold water. Eventually, the monkeys learn to avoid the ladder.

Then one monkey is removed and a new monkey is introduced. He naturally goes straight for the ladder and is set upon by the other four monkeys.

Then a second monkey is removed, and another new monkey is introduced. He naturally goes straight for the ladder and is set upon by the other four monkeys…including the one who was never sprayed.

They continue to replace each monkey in turn, until no monkeys are present who were ever sprayed with water, and yet they all refuse to go near the stairs and prevent all the new monkeys from doing so.

Now, the obvious conclusion here is that people can be conditioned to mindlessly follow rules they do not understand.

The only problem with that is that none of this ever happened.

Yes, that’s the controversy I mentioned earlier. Despite being easily found on every corner of the internet, despite magazine articles explaining it and animations recounting it…it never happened. The experiment appears to be entirely apocryphal.

No ladder, no monkeys, no cold water.

So while this supposed experiment doesn’t actually teach us about herd mentality, it does explain the modern world, because it shows us how easily a myth can be worked into a reality through sheer dint of repetition.

BONUS: MONKEY LADDER REDUX
That’s right, it doesn’t stop there, there’s another twist.

National Geographic did actually recreate the fictional monkey ladder experiment using people:


One subject walks into a doctor’s waiting room filled with fake patients. When a bell sounds, all the fake patients stand up for a second and then retake their seats.

After this process repeats a few times, the fake patients are slowly removed one-by-one until only the subject of the experiment remains. Then secondary real subjects are introduced one at a time.

The experiment seeks to answer the following questions:

a) Will the original subject stand up at the bell without knowing why?

b) Will they will continue to stand up when they are alone in the room?

c) Will they then teach this behaviour to the new subjects?

The answer to all three appears to be “yes”.

Now, while far less scientific than the other four experiments, I include this here for a very specific reason. The above video of the experiment doesn’t just record the conforming behaviour but describes it as possibly beneficial. Adding that herd behaviour saves lives in the wild and is “how we learn to socialise”.

A very interesting take, don’t you think?

So, while the fake monkey experiment that never happened was used to teach us about the perils of herd mentality, its nonexistence actually teaches us about the perils of non-primary sources and the group consciousness’s ability to confabulate.

Meanwhile, the real monkey experiment is used to sell us the idea that herd mentality does exist but is potentially a good thing. Raising the possibility the whole thing could have been staged, simply to promote conformity.
It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?

User avatar
Momma J
captain of 1,000
Posts: 1494

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Momma J »

Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm

It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?
We could teach our children to ask questions, seek the truth. If I am sitting in the doctor's office and everyone stands when a bell is rung, my natural instinct would be to ask the person closest to me why she was standing. Curious minds. Foster the desire to learn

User avatar
mudflap
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3227
Location: The South
Contact:

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by mudflap »

Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm
mudflap wrote: September 7th, 2022, 8:13 am https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... dern-world

These are interesting (original article contains video links to the experiments):
1. THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Let’s start with the most famous. Beginning in 1963, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments now referred to as the Milgram Obedience Experiments.

The setting is simple, Subject A is told to conduct a memory test on Subject B, and administer electric shocks when he makes mistakes. Of course, Subject B does not exist, and the electric shocks are not real. Instead, actors would cry, ask for help or pretend to be unconscious, all the while Subject A would be encouraged to carry on administering the shocks.

The vast majority of subjects carried on with the test and gave the shocks, despite the distress of “Subject B”.

The Conclusion: In his paper on this experiment Stanley Milgram coined the term “diffusion of responsibility”, describing the psychological process by which a person can excuse or justify doing harm to someone if they believe it’s not really their fault, they won’t be held accountable, or they do not have a choice.

The Application: Almost literally endless. All institutions can use this phenomenon to pressure people into acting against their own moral code. The army, the police, hospital staff – wherever there is a hierarchy or perceived authority, people will fall victim to the diffusion of their own responsibility.

NOTE: They made a decent film about Milgram, and the backlash his experiments caused called Experimenter. In recent years there has been a major pushback on this experiment, with articles in the MSM attacking the findings and methodology and new “researchers” claiming “it does not prove what you think it does.”

*

2. THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Only slightly less famous than Milgram’s work is Philip Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment, carried out at Stanford University in 1971. The experiment set up a mock-prison for a week, with one group of subjects designated “guards” and the other “prisoners”.

Both sides were provided uniforms, and prisoners were given a number. The guards were ordered to only ever address prisoners by their number, not their name.

There were a number of other rules and procedures, detailed here.

In brief, over the course of the week, guards became increasingly sadistic, dealing out punishments to disobedient prisoners and rewarding “good prisoners” in order to try and divide them. Many of the prisoners simply took the abuse, and in-fighting began between “trouble makers” and “good prisoners”.

Though technically not an “experiment” in the purest sense (there was no hypothesis to test, and no control group), and perhaps impacted by “demand characteristics”, the study does reveal interesting patterns of behaviour in its subjects.

The Conclusion: Prison guards became sadistic. Prisoners became obedient. All this despite no real laws being broken, no real legal authority, and no real requirement to stay. If you give people power and dehumanise those below them, they will become sadistic. If you put people in prison they will act like they are in prison.

In short, people will act the way they are treated.

The Application: Again, endless. We’ve seen it all through Covid, if you start treating people a certain way, the majority will go along with it and blame the minority who refuse to cooperate. Meanwhile, police forces around the world were suddenly granted new powers, and promptly abused them because the maskless and unvaxxed had been dehumanised in their eyes. Those reactions were engineered, not accidental.

*

3. THE ASCH EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: Another experiment in conformity, not as brutal as Milgram or Zimbardo, but perhaps more unsettling in its findings.

First conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, the setup is a simple one. You put together a panel of subjects, one real subject and a handful of fake subjects.

One by one the subjects are asked a series of multiple-choice questions to which the answer is always obvious, and all the fake subjects will get every answer wrong. The question is whether or not the real subject will maintain his own correct answer, or begin to conform with the group.

The Conclusion: While most people maintained their right answers, the “error rate” in the experiment group was 37% versus less than 1% in the control group. Meaning 36% of subjects eventually began to change their answers to align with the consensus, even though they knew they were wrong.

Around one-third of people will either pretend to change their minds for the sake of conformity or, more alarmingly, will actually alter their beliefs if they find themselves in the minority.

The Application: Staged or invented polls, falsified vote counts in elections, bot accounts on social media, astroturfing campaigns. Media headlines proclaiming “everyone knows X” or “only 1% of people think Y”.

There are a great many tools you can use in order to create the impression of a fake “consensus”, a manufactured “majority”.

NOTE: The experiment has been done a million times in dozens of variations, but perhaps the most interesting finding is that putting just one other person in the panel who agrees with the test subject seemed to reduce conformity by 87%. Essentially, people hate being a lone voice but will tolerate being in the minority if they have some support. Good to know.

*

4. FESTINGER’S COGNITIVE DISSONANCE EXPERIMENT

The Experiment: The least well-known experiment on the list, but in some ways the most fascinating. In 1954 Leon Festinger created an experiment to evaluate the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, his setup was again quite simple.

A subject is given a repetitive and dull physical task to do (originally turning wooden pegs, but other variations use other tasks).

After the task is complete, the subject is instruced to go and prepare the next subject (actually a lab assistant) for the task, by lying and telling him/her how interesting the task was.

It’s at this point the subjects are divided into two groups, one group is offered $20 to lie, the other only $1.

This is the real experiment.

The Conclusion: After lying to the fake subjects, and being paid their money, the real subjects take part in a post-experiment interview and record their genuine thoughts on the task.

Interestingly, the 20-dollar generally told the truth, that they found the task dull and repetitive. While the one-dollar group, more often than not, claimed to have genuinely enjoyed the task.

This is cognitive dissonance in action.

Essentially, for the $20 group, the money was a good reason to lie to their fellow test subject, and they could justify their own behaviour in their head. But, for the $1 group, the meagreness of the reward made their dishonesty internally unjustifiable, so they had to unconsciously create their own justification by convincing themselves they weren’t lying at all.

In summary, if you offer people a small reward for doing something, they will pretend to enjoy it, or be otherwise invested, to justify only making a small profit.

The Application: Casinos, computer games and other interactive media use this principle all the time, offering players very little pay off knowing they will convince themselves they are enjoying playing. Big corporations and employers can likewise rely on this phenomenon to keep wages down, knowing that low paid workers have a psychological mechanism that may convince them they enjoy their jobs.

NOTE: A variation on this experiment introduces a third group, who are paid nothing to lie. This group is not affected by cognitive dissonance, and will honestly appraise the task just as the well-paid group do.

*

5. THE MONKEY LADDER

The Experiment: Now this is a somewhat controversial addition to the list, but we’ll get to that later. It’s a very famous experiment you’ve probably heard cited dozens of times.

In the 1960s scientists at Harvard put five monkeys in a cage with a stepladder in the middle. Atop the stepladder is a bunch of bananas, however each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder they are all sprayed with ice-cold water. Eventually, the monkeys learn to avoid the ladder.

Then one monkey is removed and a new monkey is introduced. He naturally goes straight for the ladder and is set upon by the other four monkeys.

Then a second monkey is removed, and another new monkey is introduced. He naturally goes straight for the ladder and is set upon by the other four monkeys…including the one who was never sprayed.

They continue to replace each monkey in turn, until no monkeys are present who were ever sprayed with water, and yet they all refuse to go near the stairs and prevent all the new monkeys from doing so.

Now, the obvious conclusion here is that people can be conditioned to mindlessly follow rules they do not understand.

The only problem with that is that none of this ever happened.

Yes, that’s the controversy I mentioned earlier. Despite being easily found on every corner of the internet, despite magazine articles explaining it and animations recounting it…it never happened. The experiment appears to be entirely apocryphal.

No ladder, no monkeys, no cold water.

So while this supposed experiment doesn’t actually teach us about herd mentality, it does explain the modern world, because it shows us how easily a myth can be worked into a reality through sheer dint of repetition.

BONUS: MONKEY LADDER REDUX
That’s right, it doesn’t stop there, there’s another twist.

National Geographic did actually recreate the fictional monkey ladder experiment using people:


One subject walks into a doctor’s waiting room filled with fake patients. When a bell sounds, all the fake patients stand up for a second and then retake their seats.

After this process repeats a few times, the fake patients are slowly removed one-by-one until only the subject of the experiment remains. Then secondary real subjects are introduced one at a time.

The experiment seeks to answer the following questions:

a) Will the original subject stand up at the bell without knowing why?

b) Will they will continue to stand up when they are alone in the room?

c) Will they then teach this behaviour to the new subjects?

The answer to all three appears to be “yes”.

Now, while far less scientific than the other four experiments, I include this here for a very specific reason. The above video of the experiment doesn’t just record the conforming behaviour but describes it as possibly beneficial. Adding that herd behaviour saves lives in the wild and is “how we learn to socialise”.

A very interesting take, don’t you think?

So, while the fake monkey experiment that never happened was used to teach us about the perils of herd mentality, its nonexistence actually teaches us about the perils of non-primary sources and the group consciousness’s ability to confabulate.

Meanwhile, the real monkey experiment is used to sell us the idea that herd mentality does exist but is potentially a good thing. Raising the possibility the whole thing could have been staged, simply to promote conformity.
It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?
you're obviously a thinker like me. :)

I can't deduce anything good, thus I'm building a cabin to get away from the crazy people. It seems to me that the only way to "fight" the mass psychosis is to either have

a) a population that is hypervigilant and totally aware of these schemes
b) a population with "Daddy issues" ("toxic" and/or "pink hair types" don't count) to where they don't trust authority.

I'm in group b. :)

I also think Covid revealed:
a) that mass compliance is easy to achieve on the population of the world
b) the vast majority of people do what they are told without question (I think Jesus uses the word "sheep"....)
c) the vast majority of leaders are tyrants who stamp their feet when they don't get their way
d) that no one is coming to save you (or me)

Social media / mass access to the Internet has revealed:
a) some adults are still in 2nd grade
b) a lot of people never learned how to go down to the library and use the index to research a topic before the internet came along.

User avatar
mudflap
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3227
Location: The South
Contact:

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by mudflap »

Momma J wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:18 pm
Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm

It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?
We could teach our children to ask questions, seek the truth. If I am sitting in the doctor's office and everyone stands when a bell is rung, my natural instinct would be to ask the person closest to me why she was standing. Curious minds. Foster the desire to learn
Yes! it is unbelievable (to me anyway) how many people just sit back and accept how the world is - not many people, when presented with a situation or information or "facts", will actually say, "but WHY is it this way?"
imagination is more important than intelligence ~ Albert Einstein

User avatar
Momma J
captain of 1,000
Posts: 1494

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Momma J »

Covid was a fantastic social experiment. Very few asked questions. They simply got in line

EmmaLee
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 10884

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by EmmaLee »

Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm
It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?

For several months during mid-late 2020, I was going to a physical therapist weekly. I was very often the only person in the whole office not wearing a face diaper. I got some disdaining looks, stares, and such, but nobody ever said anything. And then a glorious thing happened. One day when I walked into the office, smile on my face, several other people (all masked) sitting there waiting, looked at me and took their masks off. It may seem like a little thing, but when I saw them (some gingerly) reach up and pull their masks off, I got tears in my eyes, not even kidding. It made me so happy! I wanted to go around and hug each of them, haha, and tell them, "see, now you go mask-less into the next place, head held high, smile on your face, and let's see what happens."

Anyway, a small thing, and only applied to 1/2 dozen people - but who knows how many it may have affected if those 1/2 dozen, in turn, took their masks off in other places, and people followed their lead, and on and on it goes.

EmmaLee
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 10884

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by EmmaLee »

Just stumbled onto this article. Serendipity....

Full article here - https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/08/gar ... e-wake-up/

How Does One Wake Up?
By Gary D. Barnett
August 27, 2022

“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.”

~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

Contrary to popular belief, “waking up,” as in seeking and accepting truth, is not something that requires outside assistance, force, or consensus. It is not something that can be bought. It is not something that can be given to you. It is not something that can at once happen to the collective masses. There is no solution that can awaken a people. There is no ‘leader’ who can awaken the herd. There is only the individual, and each individual is responsible for his own awakening. That oh so rare awakening means gaining for self the ability to think, to think as an individual, to think critically, to accept what he alone thinks, to seek and know truth, and to act on that individual knowledge. This fact, in my view, is why most all humans remain completely unconscious for their entire lives, never understanding truth, or anything of value or honesty, and living only to accept the opinions of others, especially government, media, celebrities, and so-called experts and authority figures. They have to remain in the crowd, never straying from the ‘group think,’ never taking a risk, and therefore, never having an original or independent thought. This is considered the ‘safe place,’ and in the minds of this collective, this means protection from reality.

I am asked almost daily: “What is your solution to this madness?” “What plan do you have to fix our problems?” “What are you doing to wake everybody up?” “Who should we ‘elect’ to save us?” I am heavily criticized at times for telling the truth instead of staying ‘positive.’ I am cursed for being too critical and ‘negative.’ Questions and comments such as these are a sure sign of an unconscious mind, a non-thinking person, and a proud member of the unawakened herd of sheep.

One major example of the unawakened are those who cling to one political party or the other. In essence, the ‘party’ is simply a substitute for the original herd. One is Republican, one is Democrat, one is red and one is blue, one is conservative and one is ‘liberal.’ In fact, they are both herds supported by non-thinking drones. By claiming to be one or the other, no thinking is necessary, as all thought is accomplished by the red or blue herd as a whole. Obviously, when one votes, he is choosing a collective side, and picking who is to be his ruler, and in doing so, he becomes a slave, but he also acquiesces to the ‘thinking’ of the group instead of thinking for himself. This political structure was no accident, as this designed hostility of one against another guarantees group ‘think,’ and therefore eliminates the need for individuality, self, and responsibility. The amount of time and energy put into this asinine circus is evidence enough of the worthlessness of it all.

By looking to others, by looking outside, and by searching for opinions from the group instead of believing in self, one becomes dependent on what is mostly propaganda, and exposes that he does not have any trust in himself. This is why these seemingly helpless people cannot fix themselves or face the truth. This is why capitulation and submission to authority by the masses is now so rampant. This kind of behavior is similar to addiction in that the more people who look away for answers instead of looking inward, the less likely they will ever change, and actually, they will usually become more and more dependent as time passes.

There is no way to know for sure, but my belief is that at least 80% or more (maybe much more) of this population are a part of the collective herd that has little or no ability to think on their own concerning matters of importance. I do realize that this is a startling conclusion to reach, but given all that has happened to date, how can this be doubted?

There is no way to awaken the herd by force, by political means, by demands, or even by persuasion. Each individual has to delve inside himself, and awaken his own spirit so he can find the courage to improve self instead of relying on the crowd. This will lead to seeking the truth, and that is the first step toward independence. This is not an easy task, because to trust self requires personal responsibility for every thought, every action, and every life situation. When this occurs, all fear disappears, and the minds eye opens to bright light instead of darkness.

Maybe some reflection is in order. There is no real security in the group, there is only consensus, confusion, and emptiness. The next time you find yourself asking others for a solution to your problems, or asking questions about your own freedom and how to attain it; stop, close your eyes, and seek your answers from within. When those answers come, trust them, and escape from the hellish and barren existence that is the non-thinking collective horde.

Allison
captain of 1,000
Posts: 2410

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Allison »

EmmaLee wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:33 pm
Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm
It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?

For several months during mid-late 2020, I was going to a physical therapist weekly. I was very often the only person in the whole office not wearing a face diaper. I got some disdaining looks, stares, and such, but nobody ever said anything. And then a glorious thing happened. One day when I walked into the office, smile on my face, several other people (all masked) sitting there waiting, looked at me and took their masks off. It may seem like a little thing, but when I saw them (some gingerly) reach up and pull their masks off, I got tears in my eyes, not even kidding. It made me so happy! I wanted to go around and hug each of them, haha, and tell them, "see, now you go mask-less into the next place, head held high, smile on your face, and let's see what happens."

Anyway, a small thing, and only applied to 1/2 dozen people - but who knows how many it may have affected if those 1/2 dozen, in turn, took their masks off in other places, and people followed their lead, and on and on it goes.
I like to hope to that out of all our non-compliance, maybe we caused a few people to ask themselves exactly why they were doing such a silly thing as wearing a mask. I never saw such a dramatic result as you inspired, so that is beautiful for you.

Mattias Desmet says the only way to prevent a mass formation is to never stop speaking out (against the lie), but that’s not so easy with strangers or even friends or family.

One thing we did discover was the value of t-shirts with a message. The statement is made everywhere you go, and no one can cut you off or silence you. And hopefully some seeds of questioning are planted. My husband works with the public, so he was a Walking billboard with his cheeky shirts. I only wish we could have found more, and especially more shirts that were kind of funny. He has sure gotten a lot of compliments, with increasing frequency over the past year or so.

So…any other ideas? Or does anyone know of a great source for narrative disruptive t-shirts?

User avatar
mudflap
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3227
Location: The South
Contact:

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by mudflap »

Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 3:25 pm
EmmaLee wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:33 pm
Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm
It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?

For several months during mid-late 2020, I was going to a physical therapist weekly. I was very often the only person in the whole office not wearing a face diaper. I got some disdaining looks, stares, and such, but nobody ever said anything. And then a glorious thing happened. One day when I walked into the office, smile on my face, several other people (all masked) sitting there waiting, looked at me and took their masks off. It may seem like a little thing, but when I saw them (some gingerly) reach up and pull their masks off, I got tears in my eyes, not even kidding. It made me so happy! I wanted to go around and hug each of them, haha, and tell them, "see, now you go mask-less into the next place, head held high, smile on your face, and let's see what happens."

Anyway, a small thing, and only applied to 1/2 dozen people - but who knows how many it may have affected if those 1/2 dozen, in turn, took their masks off in other places, and people followed their lead, and on and on it goes.
I like to hope to that out of all our non-compliance, maybe we caused a few people to ask themselves exactly why they were doing such a silly thing as wearing a mask. I never saw such a dramatic result as you inspired, so that is beautiful for you.

Mattias Desmet says the only way to prevent a mass formation is to never stop speaking out (against the lie), but that’s not so easy with strangers or even friends or family.

One thing we did discover was the value of t-shirts with a message. The statement is made everywhere you go, and no one can cut you off or silence you. And hopefully some seeds of questioning are planted. My husband works with the public, so he was a Walking billboard with his cheeky shirts. I only wish we could have found more, and especially more shirts that were kind of funny. He has sure gotten a lot of compliments, with increasing frequency over the past year or so.

So…any other ideas? Or does anyone know of a great source for narrative disruptive t-shirts?
Maybe I'm too "black pilled", but I'm starting to think, "this is as good as it gets". Those who are now awake are the only ones that will ever awake. If the election of 2020, or 2012, or 2008, or covid, or the disconnect between "the news" and reality - if any of that hasn't woken folks up, I just don't think they will. "No one is coming to save you", as they say.

Here's a quote from a guy who survived Nazi Germany:
“You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow… But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. . . If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked … But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between comes all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next… And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. . . and you see that everything – everything – has changed…Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed…”
~Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free
This ^ is "human behavior", just like these experiments (the original post in this thread) - this is how people behave. I've heard estimates of the American Revolution - something like 1/3 of the population were patriots, and only about 20,000 were actively involved in fighting against Britain. The rest were either against the revolution, or didn't want to get involved.

Anyway, sorry to be a downer, but also, it doesn't take much to "win"; Captain Moroni understood this:
Alma 60:27 And I will come unto you, and if there be any among you that has a desire for freedom, yea, if there be even a spark of freedom remaining, behold I will stir up insurrections among you, even until those who have desires to usurp power and authority shall become extinct.
28 Yea, behold I do not fear your power nor your authority, but it is my God whom I fear; and it is according to his commandments that I do take my sword to defend the cause of my country, and it is because of your iniquity that we have suffered so much loss.
29 Behold it is time, yea, the time is now at hand, that except ye do bestir yourselves in the defence of your country and your little ones, the sword of justice doth hang over you; yea, and it shall fall upon you and visit you even to your utter destruction.

User avatar
PeacefulProtests
captain of 100
Posts: 330

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by PeacefulProtests »

The last 2.5 years was a combination of the Milgram experiment + the Asch experiment. I would smile walking around in stores being the only one without a mask on thinking about the Asch experiment. Now that hardly anybody is wearing a mask anymore I keep asking myself if its possible to reintroduce mandates back into a population successfully or do the really smart psychologists know that they have played their hand and need to move on to something new? (The weaponization of food and energy)

User avatar
h_p
captain of 1,000
Posts: 2811

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by h_p »

Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?
There are lots of things, but none are easy. You need to foster a society where people know how to think for themselves, question everything, think critically, recognize signs of tyranny, value individual rights and liberties, and on and on. Outsourcing the upbringing of your children to centralized authorities will get you the opposite of all this.

Compare cultures in the world where collectivism is valued over individualism. I'm thinking Eastern vs. Western cultures mainly. In Japan, they're still wearing masks for covid, and expect to keep it up for the next 2-5 years. The country is still closed to tourism for the most part. The amount of peer pressure there to conform to what everybody else is doing is almost unthinkable to folks like us. They do what they're told, so everybody is basically waiting on everybody else to tell them it's ok to ditch the masks.

Here in the US, who were the first people to start smelling a rat when the lockdowns and medical tyranny set in? The people who already had a distrust of authority. People who valued individual rights. The free-thinkers and anti-authoritarians.

Herd mentality makes people into slaves.

EmmaLee
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 10884

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by EmmaLee »

PeacefulProtests wrote: September 9th, 2022, 8:07 am The last 2.5 years was a combination of the Milgram experiment + the Asch experiment. I would smile walking around in stores being the only one without a mask on thinking about the Asch experiment. Now that hardly anybody is wearing a mask anymore I keep asking myself if its possible to reintroduce mandates back into a population successfully or do the really smart psychologists know that they have played their hand and need to move on to something new? (The weaponization of food and energy)

Yes, and don't forget "climate change" (the globalists and their toadies had to ditch their moniker "global warming", as temps in most of the world have been, overall, cooler over the past several years, rather than 'warmer') - which is their excuse to weaponize food, energy, and water. "Climate change" is the new boogey-man to replace their previous boogey-man, "covid", and just as many people, if not more, are falling for that hoax, sadly. Some people truly never learn, and prefer to be led around by the invisible ring through their nose.

User avatar
Thinker
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 12975
Location: The Universe - wherever that is.

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Thinker »

Momma J wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:18 pm
Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pmIt seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?
We could teach our children to ask questions, seek the truth. If I am sitting in the doctor's office and everyone stands when a bell is rung, my natural instinct would be to ask the person closest to me why she was standing. Curious minds. Foster the desire to learn
Great ideas!
I’ve tried to teach our kids how to think critically by spotting cognitive distortions & logical fallacies. Now, as my kids are teens, & present argument after argument, I’m seeing the effect! :shock: :lol:

User avatar
Thinker
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 12975
Location: The Universe - wherever that is.

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Thinker »

EmmaLee wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:33 pm… One day when I walked into the office, smile on my face, several other people (all masked) sitting there waiting, looked at me and took their masks off. It may seem like a little thing, but when I saw them (some gingerly) reach up and pull their masks off, I got tears in my eyes, not even kidding. It made me so happy! I wanted to go around and hug each of them, haha, and tell them, "see, now you go mask-less into the next place, head held high, smile on your face, and let's see what happens."

Anyway, a small thing, and only applied to 1/2 dozen people - but who knows how many it may have affected if those 1/2 dozen, in turn, took their masks off in other places, and people followed their lead, and on and on it goes.
Awesome! I had a similar experience & felt similarly.
The good thing about herd mentality is that it can work for good - just needs someone willing to be the odd one and lead.

User avatar
Thinker
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 12975
Location: The Universe - wherever that is.

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Thinker »

h_p wrote: September 9th, 2022, 8:52 am….Here in the US, who were the first people to start smelling a rat when the lockdowns and medical tyranny set in? The people who already had a distrust of authority. People who valued individual rights. The free-thinkers and anti-authoritarians.

Herd mentality makes people into slaves.
Good points.
Some personality types show to be more persuaded by herd mentalities. It could be also older generations who were more of the mind, “never question parents or authorities.”

Some of us learned - often subconsciously- at a young age, that herds (even family) are not to be trusted completely. It’s probably easier for this type to recognize BS when it comes around.

A study (might’ve been one in the op) suggested most people (about 70%) succumb to herd mentality - only about 30% don’t. For a long time, I was a bit naive in trusting in people more than they deserve. I don’t want to become resentful or cynical but at the same time - it’s important to have a firm grip on reality to navigate the narrow way through storms & obstacles.

User avatar
Niemand
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 13999

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Niemand »

I was comparing this whole thing to the Milgram Experiment last year. It shows how cruel people can and will be.

Far more atrocities are caused by armies, cops and secret police than are ever committed by lone wolf serial killers.

User avatar
mudflap
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3227
Location: The South
Contact:

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by mudflap »

I feel like I can share this here - and most of you will already know this -

the more I read the Book of Mormon, the better I'm able to predict human behavior- almost prophetically.

Allison
captain of 1,000
Posts: 2410

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Allison »

mudflap wrote: September 9th, 2022, 11:41 am I feel like I can share this here - and most of you will already know this -

the more I read the Book of Mormon, the better I'm able to predict human behavior- almost prophetically.
Haha! But that isn’t good news, is it? Hmm. Let’s pray for a better outcome. Maybe the message for us is to jump on it as soon as we see a psyop starting. Maybe we can at least create small pockets of resistance, and maybe that can spread.

Allison
captain of 1,000
Posts: 2410

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Allison »

EmmaLee wrote: September 9th, 2022, 9:35 am
PeacefulProtests wrote: September 9th, 2022, 8:07 am The last 2.5 years was a combination of the Milgram experiment + the Asch experiment. I would smile walking around in stores being the only one without a mask on thinking about the Asch experiment. Now that hardly anybody is wearing a mask anymore I keep asking myself if its possible to reintroduce mandates back into a population successfully or do the really smart psychologists know that they have played their hand and need to move on to something new? (The weaponization of food and energy)

Yes, and don't forget "climate change" (the globalists and their toadies had to ditch their moniker "global warming", as temps in most of the world have been, overall, cooler over the past several years, rather than 'warmer') - which is their excuse to weaponize food, energy, and water. "Climate change" is the new boogey-man to replace their previous boogey-man, "covid", and just as many people, if not more, are falling for that hoax, sadly. Some people truly never learn, and prefer to be led around by the invisible ring through their nose.
I saw a headline on Telegram last night: reporting that climate lockdowns in some European countries are already being imposed, and no kidding…they’re saying it’s ”To Flatten the Curve.”

User avatar
Niemand
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 13999

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Niemand »

EmmaLee wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:33 pm
Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm
It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?

For several months during mid-late 2020, I was going to a physical therapist weekly. I was very often the only person in the whole office not wearing a face diaper. I got some disdaining looks, stares, and such, but nobody ever said anything. And then a glorious thing happened. One day when I walked into the office, smile on my face, several other people (all masked) sitting there waiting, looked at me and took their masks off. It may seem like a little thing, but when I saw them (some gingerly) reach up and pull their masks off, I got tears in my eyes, not even kidding. It made me so happy! I wanted to go around and hug each of them, haha, and tell them, "see, now you go mask-less into the next place, head held high, smile on your face, and let's see what happens."

Anyway, a small thing, and only applied to 1/2 dozen people - but who knows how many it may have affected if those 1/2 dozen, in turn, took their masks off in other places, and people followed their lead, and on and on it goes.
I often find this is the way. Sometimes when people see someone doing something and getting away with it, the chains fall off.

The mask thing is odd. I was one of the first with one on, and first with it off. I wore one back when we were told not to, but took mine off earlier. So I was in the paradoxical position of getting abuse from normies for both.

If I went back in time, it would have been a very different story.

User avatar
BeNotDeceived
Agent38
Posts: 8960
Location: Tralfamadore
Contact:

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by BeNotDeceived »

mudflap wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:25 pm
imagination is more important than intelligence ~ Albert Einstein
Imagination without intelligence is just wishful thinking. :lol:

EmmaLee
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 10884

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by EmmaLee »

Allison wrote: September 9th, 2022, 2:39 pm
EmmaLee wrote: September 9th, 2022, 9:35 am Yes, and don't forget "climate change" (the globalists and their toadies had to ditch their moniker "global warming", as temps in most of the world have been, overall, cooler over the past several years, rather than 'warmer') - which is their excuse to weaponize food, energy, and water. "Climate change" is the new boogey-man to replace their previous boogey-man, "covid", and just as many people, if not more, are falling for that hoax, sadly. Some people truly never learn, and prefer to be led around by the invisible ring through their nose.
I saw a headline on Telegram last night: reporting that climate lockdowns in some European countries are already being imposed, and no kidding…they’re saying it’s ”To Flatten the Curve.”

My husband and I heard that the other day, too - that they are starting "climate lockdowns" in various places (no doubt testing the notion to see how well the sheep obey over something even more silly than 'covid') - and yes! using the same verbiage as covid with the nonsensical "flatten the curve". :lol: But yet there are people who actually believe this crap. There is just no waking some people up - they are too comfortable in their cocoon of fake news. Same agenda - different boogey-man.

User avatar
Niemand
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 13999

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by Niemand »

h_p wrote: September 9th, 2022, 8:52 am
Allison wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:04 pm It seems like we’ve seen a lot of this played out in real life over the past 2.5 years. Is there anything we can deduce from these lessons to help our people to navigate the next psyop more successfully? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to inspire mass non-compliance?
There are lots of things, but none are easy. You need to foster a society where people know how to think for themselves, question everything, think critically, recognize signs of tyranny, value individual rights and liberties, and on and on. Outsourcing the upbringing of your children to centralized authorities will get you the opposite of all this.

Compare cultures in the world where collectivism is valued over individualism. I'm thinking Eastern vs. Western cultures mainly. In Japan, they're still wearing masks for covid, and expect to keep it up for the next 2-5 years. The country is still closed to tourism for the most part. The amount of peer pressure there to conform to what everybody else is doing is almost unthinkable to folks like us. They do what they're told, so everybody is basically waiting on everybody else to tell them it's ok to ditch the masks.

Here in the US, who were the first people to start smelling a rat when the lockdowns and medical tyranny set in? The people who already had a distrust of authority. People who valued individual rights. The free-thinkers and anti-authoritarians.

Herd mentality makes people into slaves.
In north east Asia, people were wearing masks for years. We used to laugh about it when we saw east Asian tourists wearing them.

User avatar
mudflap
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3227
Location: The South
Contact:

Re: psychology of group behavior

Post by mudflap »

BeNotDeceived wrote: September 9th, 2022, 2:59 pm
mudflap wrote: September 7th, 2022, 2:25 pm
imagination is more important than intelligence ~ Albert Einstein
Imagination without intelligence is just wishful thinking. :lol:
I don't think so.

Post Reply