Are humans conformists?

[zCypher]

Well, are we? What do you think?

 

[bizmark]

of course! Civilization couldn't exist without them.

 

[XZeroII]

I don't know, what does everyone else think?

 

[zerocomm]

aren't christians proof enough?

 

[Zenmervolt]

In a basic sense I think that people are pack animals, however we're not blind followers. It's pretty much accepted in Psychology that people like to have a group to which they belong. However, I don't think that most people are followers to such an extent that they will go along with their group if the group is doing somthing that they find truly abhorent. Also, there will always be a few iconoclasts who are out there on their own.

ZV

 

[edro]

Originally posted by: zerocomm
aren't christians proof enough?

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Hahahaha! You better put on your flame suit.

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: zerocomm
aren't christians proof enough?

the same could be said about any other religion...

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
In a basic sense I think that people are pack animals, however we're not blind followers. It's pretty much accepted in Psychology that people like to have a group to which they belong. However, I don't think that most people are followers to such an extent that they will go along with their group if the group is doing somthing that they find truly abhorent. Also, there will always be a few iconoclasts who are out there on their own.

ZV

Excellent post, Zenmervolt - my thoughts exactly. I was interested to see who would post what I thought, and who would become suddenly defensive and claim "no way! I'm not conformist in any way at all! I don't rely on anything or anyone and I don't do anything anyone else does!"

It was an interesting discussion in psychology class a week or two ago.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Dispite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.

nik

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: zerocomm
aren't christians proof enough?

Not without the assholes that follow them around

nik

 

[deerslayer]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
In a basic sense I think that people are pack animals, however we're not blind followers. It's pretty much accepted in Psychology that people like to have a group to which they belong. However, I don't think that most people are followers to such an extent that they will go along with their group if the group is doing somthing that they find truly abhorent. Also, there will always be a few iconoclasts who are out there on their own.

ZV

He's smart

 

[zCypher]

I think that naturally, we conform, but conciously we often try to move away from the idea of being conformists. For an easy example, a ricer might be conforming to the ricer community/ideals by ricing it up - but will likely claim he's being "different" than the others, or that he's not doing it because he thinks it's cool and others do it. I think the same idea applies to many things in life. Maybe my example wasn't so great . . .

 

[NewSc2]

Originally posted by: zCypher
I think that naturally, we conform, but conciously we often try to move away from the idea of being conformists. For an easy example, a ricer might be conforming to the ricer community/ideals by ricing it up - but will likely claim he's being "different" than the others, or that he's not doing it because he thinks it's cool and others do it. I think the same idea applies to many things in life. Maybe my example wasn't so great . . .

not a bad example. i see conformists every day, and even i'm a conformist (maybe not to the extent of my annoying apartment neighbors)

 

[jjones]

I think conformity is survival behaviour and all humans practice this in varying degrees.

 

[Moonbeam]

Conformity is caused by fear, the fear of being put down. We were all manipulated as children by our need for love. Me were given a Faustian bargain, conform and get your needs met, or die. The fear of being different is the fear of dying. It's not for everybody. But as you replace the need for external validation with self understanding and self love, you acquire the power to be who you were meant to be, who you really are. When you don't need and therefore don't worry about what others think about you because you give yourself your own approval, you will find yourself different without effort. Conformity and non-conformity can be opposite sides of the same coin. Rebellion is just a reaction to being challenged with withdrawal of support and taking the challenge without the extra step of supplying the self affirmation. Conforming or rebelling, it's all the same thing. The truly different are different from within.

 

[Geekbabe]

sometimes it's best to stand up and be heard

sometimes it's smartest to go along to get along

and wise indeed is the one who can decide accurately which solution to take in any given situation

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Conformity is caused by fear, the fear of being put down. We were all manipulated as children by our need for love. Me were given a Faustian bargain, conform and get your needs met, or die. The fear of being different is the fear of dying. It's not for everybody. But as you replace the need for external validation with self understanding and self love, you acquire the power to be who you were meant to be, who you really are. When you don't need and therefore don't worry about what others think about you because you give yourself your own approval, you will find yourself different without effort. Conformity and non-conformity can be opposite sides of the same coin. Rebellion is just a reaction to being challenged with withdrawal of support and taking the challenge without the extra step of supplying the self affirmation. Conforming or rebelling, it's all the same thing. The truly different are different from within.

Interesting perspective, Moonbeam. Say, you're getting close to 10k posts. Congrats. Or... er... my condolences?

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
In a basic sense I think that people are pack animals, however we're not blind followers. It's pretty much accepted in Psychology that people like to have a group to which they belong. However, I don't think that most people are followers to such an extent that they will go along with their group if the group is doing somthing that they find truly abhorent. Also, there will always be a few iconoclasts who are out there on their own.

ZV

You'd be surprised. Check out psych studies on conformism and obediance of authority from the 1950s.

 

[bizmark]

Just look at the studies where they put a guy in a room with 16 other people who insisted that 2+2=5. Almost every one of those test subjects eventually broke down and conformed.

edit: (followup to previous post) also look at the studies where people were ordered to give someone else electric shocks. Again, almost every subject kept increasing the voltage well into the range marked "dangerous" on the knob.

 

[zCypher]

Jeez bizmark, where've you been? 2 + 2 is 5. Slow mofo!

 

[Squisher]

One of the most interesting classes I've ever had was a social psychology class. Take one and firnd out just what kind of lemmings we really are.

The neatest one was the experiment involving the suposed electricution of a subject in another room.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: hdeck

Originally posted by: zerocomm
aren't christians proof enough?

the same could be said about any other religion...

Exactly!

 

[IGBT]

Most certainly. Look at all the tatoo,ear ring and orfice studed goombahs walking around with backwards ball hats who think they are non-conformists?? When they all look the same. And are trying to mimic the ignoramuses they see playing sports and on network TV. Monkey see monkey do?

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: Squisher
One of the most interesting classes I've ever had was a social psychology class. Take one and firnd out just what kind of lemmings we really are.

The neatest one was the experiment involving the suposed electricution of a subject in another room.

Elaborate?

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: zCypher

Originally posted by: Squisher
One of the most interesting classes I've ever had was a social psychology class. Take one and firnd out just what kind of lemmings we really are.

The neatest one was the experiment involving the suposed electricution of a subject in another room.

Elaborate?

Most of the social psychology experiments have names. I wish I could remember the name of this one.

I know I'm going to get most of the peticulars of this wrong, but as I remember:

People were brought in and told that an experiment was being conducted to determine the effects of pain on telling the truth. Never were they told that the guy that greated them in the white coat holding a clipboard was a doctor. A subject was seated in front of a conterol panel with a series of buttons labeled in 30 volt increments from 30 to 330 volt every button after 270 was labeled "warning, will cause severe trama". Another subject(mole) was lead into another room and was supposedly strapped into a chair out of eye sight in of the first subject.

The people were told to read questions and were instructed when to push buttons that were supposedly giving the guy in the chair a shock. After like the voltage got up to 120 the second subject started to complain.
After like 180 they started to say that they had a heart ailment and they wanted to end the experiment. Screams of pain and pleadings for the experiment to end were heard after like 210. At 270 all that was heard was silence.

Like 85% went all the way to 270 and 45% went all the way to 330.

Social psychology is an eye opener.