20 Things I’ve Learned (Or Had Confirmed) About Humanity During The ‘Pandemic’ (THREAD):

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

1/ Most people would rather be in the majority, than be right.

There is a lot of psychology to back this one up.  Everything from evolutionary psychology to modern influence training.   From an evolutionary standpoint, this comes from our ancient, nomadic, hunter-gatherer roots.   In these societies, everyone had a role.   Hunter, gatherer, cook, forge, protector.

And these societies needed ALL  of these roles to survive.  The terrain was harsh, weather unforgiving, the animals were savage and the people were worse.   Just look up the stories of Genghis Khan.  In these times of old, you needed your tribe.   If you made the wrong move, you were banished – and you probably died horribly.   Definitely gonna die sooner than later.   Probably horribly.

Advance to modern day psychology.   We have often referenced the GREAT modern book Influence by Robert Cialdini.  (Re-Read the notes here).   In this book, he isolates the 6 most influential phenomenon on humans.   One of them is “Social Proof”.   Social Proof  maintains that a person who does not know what the proper behavior for a certain situation is, will look to other people to imitate what they are doing and to provide guidance for his actions.

If you are walking down the street, and suddenly 100 people are running the other way, you will probably at least slow down.  Backpedal.  Or Retreat.

In today’s tech society, these things can escalate QUICKLY!   Relatively small numbers of people can become very loud and powerful within online communities.   These swarms of people have found ways to influence advertisers, employers, and society as a whole.  Many times for good.   Many times for the worse.   Most of the time for the <shrug>

So there is safety in numbers.  Stay vanilla and don’t be the tall poppy.  If you don’t go out on a limb, it can’t break under you.

However, you also can’t be exceptional this way.   Which leads to the very definition of Exceptional.   If you amongst the masses you are normal, and you cannot be outstanding.  You cannot be unusually good, if you are ‘the usual.”   Though, regressing to the mean, and choosing to be in the majority, is how the “normal people” are created.