Mental Manipulation and Conformity

Do you consider yourself to be a conformist? Most people don’t. We all like to think of ourselves as independent thinkers.

However, people have always been influenced by others. Fads wouldn’t take off if this was not the case. Sometimes it’s harmless. Other times it’s not.

For example, we used to have cigarette commercials. People believed that smoking would make them more attractive. They didn’t realize the damage they were doing to their lungs.

In modern times, social media makes it even easier to manipulate people. People want to be popular and their critical thinking skills have eroded.

Of course, people have always been subject to group thinking.

The Asch Conformity Experiments

In 1951 researcher Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments in social psychology to determine the extent of group pressure on individuals.

The experiments occurred at Swarthmore College in the United States. A random male student, let’s call him Bob, would be placed in a room with 7 others who had been briefed ahead of time.

Bob did not know the others had been briefed ahead of time to give the wrong answer. He thought they were participants like himself.

The group was shown two cards. One had a single line drawn on it, the other had three lines that were labeled A, B, and C. Only line B matched the single line on the other card. Line A was too short and line C was too long.

The students were asked to say out loud which line matched the original.

The briefed students were asked to answer first, and Bob would answer last. The briefed students answered wrong.

75% of the time, “Bob” conformed at least once over the course of several trials. Only in 25% of the cases did the random participant answer correctly. In other words, only about a quarter of the random participants were non-conformists. The rest conformed.

However, in a control group, when there was no pressure to conform, only 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.

Avoid being manipulated

So how do we prevent ourselves from being manipulated?

Maybe stop listening so much to other people. Don’t get your news from social media, and fast forward through commercials. Maybe not allow others to rush us into making a decision quickly. Go to a quiet place without distractions when we need to make a decision.

Conformity isn’t always bad

It’s not always wrong to conform.

If a group of co-workers is going out to lunch and everyone else wants to go for Thai food, you might go along even if you don’t like that cuisine. If you’ve heard bad things about the restaurant, you might bring it up, but if everyone else is determined, you might go along to get along.

In this type of situation, keeping the peace might outweigh other considerations.

But what if you’re allergic to Thai chiles? Or what if conformity will lead you to lose a lot of money? Or what if the group wants to bully someone?

Sometimes you need to be a nonconformist. Wisdom is knowing when to stand up to the group and when to diplomatically go along.

I am fighting stage IV cancer. If you can help with medical bills, I would really appreciate it. Or if you enjoy my writing and would like to buy me a cup of coffee, that’s great too. Maybe someday I can return the favor.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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