Have you heard of the Ash conformity experiments? About 75% of the test subjects gave incorrect answers knowingly, because the rest of the group disagreed. 3 people were enough to trigger such a response…
Conversely, being a lone beacon of truth and rationality has gotten people killed before, like Socrates. Or like how the few who opposed the Iraq war before we knew it was based on lies were branded as cowards and traitors.
Agreed, it says a lot about the current political climate.
I recently read a letter by Dietrich Bonnhoefer, who was a German Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, who was imprisoned in 1943, hanged by Hitler’s personal directive in April 1945.
His letter is titled “On Stupidity” and it explains A LOT about the same phenomenon.
Have you heard of the Ash conformity experiments? About 75% of the test subjects gave incorrect answers knowingly, because the rest of the group disagreed. 3 people were enough to trigger such a response…
This fascinates me. Kind of terrifying how vulnerable humans are to the need for group acceptance.
Conversely, being a lone beacon of truth and rationality has gotten people killed before, like Socrates. Or like how the few who opposed the Iraq war before we knew it was based on lies were branded as cowards and traitors.
There is value in conforming.
Agreed, it says a lot about the current political climate.
I recently read a letter by Dietrich Bonnhoefer, who was a German Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, who was imprisoned in 1943, hanged by Hitler’s personal directive in April 1945.
His letter is titled “On Stupidity” and it explains A LOT about the same phenomenon.