People in Crowds Pick Leaders...just like Sheep.

[heart]

Crowds 'pick leaders to follow'By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 11:01pm GMT 14/02/2008


People in crowds behave just like sheep, scientists claim, by blindly following one or two people who seem to know where they are going.

Like ants, humans are easily led

 

[white]

*queues up behind heart and waits patiently*




Seriously. Yes. It is easier to have your thinking thought out for you, and merely complain vs think and act. Why else the popularity of religion.. sometimes religion is an easy way out of thinking, isn't it...

Think of the leaders in human history. Most of them have/had charisma. Be they right or wrong. That conviction swayed and brought them power...

We're social animals. We want to be led, then we want to be free. But even in freedom, we'd elect a leader.

 

[Nocapszy]

Ooh, nice quip there aelan. Except... there's never been such a thing as freedom. We can use that word all we want. Doesn't make it true. This isn't the land of the free. It's the land of the delusional.

Maybe the land of the freeer, but we've got a long ways to go.

Actually, I'm not sure freedom can exist. At all. We're always subsidiary to physics aren't we?

 

[white]

Ooh, nice quip there aelan. Except... there's never been such a thing as freedom. We can use that word all we want. Doesn't make it true. This isn't the land of the free. It's the land of the delusional.

Maybe the land of the freeer, but we've got a long ways to go.

Actually, I'm not sure freedom can exist. At all. We're always subsidiary to physics aren't we?

Agreed on the illusion of freedom. 'Tis why I said even in freedom we elect leaders.

I think it was Rosseau(?) that had it "freedom is the right to choose your own chains".

Physics. Erm. If you want to come down to that, we're subject to Biology too.

 

[Nocapszy]

"Even more striking, that study found that even when we are shown a faster route, we still prefer to stick with the old one and tell others to take the long road too.

That discovery could have lethal implications when it comes to evacuating a building or ship in an emergency, when people would likely stick to the familiar evacuation route, even if slower than an alternative.

I honestly say, let 'em burn.

We might just be able to keep the intelligence level of the human gene pool from dropping if we just let them get killed.

 

[Nocapszy]

Agreed on the illusion of freedom. 'Tis why I said even in freedom we elect leaders.

But it's not freedom. Didn't need to say anything.

I think it was Rosseau(?) that had it "freedom is the right to choose your own chains".

Physics. Erm. If you want to come down to that, we're subject to Biology too.

Well yeah, but then biology is another subordinate of physics. I chose the highest known umbrella.

 

[white]

^^

*perks up*

explain the physics - biology subordinate, if it doesn't detail heart's thread?

 

[Grayscale]

people often follow me even though i either do not know or havent decided where im going

Ooh, nice quip there aelan. Except... there's never been such a thing as freedom. We can use that word all we want. Doesn't make it true. This isn't the land of the free. It's the land of the delusional.

Maybe the land of the freeer, but we've got a long ways to go.

Actually, I'm not sure freedom can exist. At all. We're always subsidiary to physics aren't we?

by "freedom", people mean freedom within the constraints that humanity is universally subject to, nobody is suggesting that we are gods. the word is used loosely as even within our country people will have a varying degree of liberties depending on their circumstances.

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

Baaa.

 

[disregard]

I am not innocent of having used the sheep comparison when referring to human mindlessness, but I will say one thing...

Perhaps sheep know what they are doing? If you follow the herd, your chances of getting eaten by the wolf are diminished. Why are sheep always laughed at for their tendency to follow? If your brother sheep jumped off a cliff, perhaps you would want to go where the brother went, because you could not imagine life without him? I'm sure sheep do what is most natural because it works.

 

[Poser]

"Why do people always follow me? I must have charisma...."

 

[Nocapszy]

by "freedom", people mean freedom within the constraints that humanity is universally subject to, nobody is suggesting that we are gods. the word is used loosely as even within our country people will have a varying degree of liberties depending on their circumstances.

Well obviously.

I figured it was so obvious that it would be understood it was hyperbole.

explain the physics - biology subordinate, if it doesn't detail heart's thread?

Wouldn't detailing the thread be a good thing?

I'm glad the t and r are so close together.

 

[white]

Well obviously.

I figured it was so obvious that it would be understood it was hyperbole.



Wouldn't detailing the thread be a good thing?

I'm glad the t and r are so close together.

.... Thanks for spotting that.

And for making it obvious. :steam:

PM an explanation?!

sorry heart. *nudges thread back*

people = sheep because they all follow.

what of people who are not in crowds though? Are there lone ranger sheep?

 

[Totenkindly]

This all seems a little simplistic to me.
Even forum dynamics HERE at MBTIc are far more complex than all this.
Even people looking for leadership don't necessarily follow blindly.

Discuss.

 

[disregard]

Even people looking for leadership don't necessarily follow blindly.

Discuss.

I agree. It's not a bad thing. Following a leader is a way of supporting the direction you wish your community to take.

 

[owarinoTenshi]

Seems like an interesting study. I'm going to have to look more into it.

This study seems to show that we have a strong tendency to blindly group behind a few leaders who appear to know what they're doing (whether that appearance is recognized consciously or not). However, in this case it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, because most of the participants didn't have a goal other than walking around randomly.

I want to know how bad our tendency is when we're presented with a situation where we have a clear goal that can be figured out (albeit perhaps requiring a little effort). Give some of the people instructions to follow a plan that will ultimately fail (although it is not immediately obvious that it will do so) and see whether people follow them or figure out their own plan. I think it would be interesting to see how many people actually critically think through things or just lazily follow. Then, take a bunch of high IQ people, and see if they pretty much do the exact same thing. I'll bet they do.

 

[The Ü™]

A person is smart, but people are dumb. The smart person is an anomaly, so a smart person is more likely to be independent of a social group. If a smart person is also socially inclined, chances are that s(he) is the one who manipulates the crowds and controls their thoughts. But people are, at large, fools who need to band together because they can't think for themselves. Mankind's survival is attributed to a crowd of idiots being led, for better or for worse, by a wise person. And most people do things because their friends do it, they don't really question why they do it.

 

[Wolf]

Does this cause traffic jams? I swear that once I get to the front of the pack people start following me like some kind of leader. They don't go around me, they try to just keep up... I've noticed they do the same with others, too.

Maybe there's something to this.

 

[6sticks]

Don't these scientists have anything better to do? Cure cancer maybe? Work on hydrogen power?

o rly peeple follow leaders didnt no that thx guys

 

[nightning]

Don't these scientists have anything better to do? Cure cancer maybe? Work on hydrogen power?

o rly peeple follow leaders didnt no that thx guys

*coughs* It's for the poor psychology graduate students... After so many thesis projects... you start running out of nice ideas to test. So while they're at it... let's see how sheep-like people can get.

BAAAA! I don't think it has much to do with intelligence so much as the situation. People weren't given much directions as to what to do in the room. Following somebody else in an ambiguous situation has probably been evolutionally programmed into human beings. Afterall group cohesion is what helped us survived thousands of years ago...

This really isn't new finding though... more like expanding on the old. Or rather the very very old studies. Candid camera!
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