Analysis of the causes of the herd effect

Generally speaking, the behavior of group members usually tends to follow the group. When he finds that his actions and opinions are inconsistent with the group, or disagrees with the majority of the group, he will feel a pressure, which prompts him to tend to a phenomenon consistent with the group, which is called herd behavior.

Conformity is everywhere in our lives. Two people were arguing on the street. It wasn't a big deal, but as a result, more and more people were quarreling, and eventually even the traffic was blocked. The people behind stopped and looked up at the crowd...

American James Thurber has a very vivid text to describe people's herd mentality:

Suddenly , a person started running. Maybe it was because he suddenly remembered the date with his lover, which was long overdue. No matter what he thought, he started running down the street, running eastward. Another man also started running, probably an excited newsboy. A third man, a fat gentleman in urgent need, also broke into a trot... Within ten minutes, everyone on the street was running. The noisy sound gradually became clearer, and the word "levee" could be heard clearly. "The embankment has burst!" This terrifying voice may have been shouted by an old woman on the tram, a traffic policeman, or a boy. No one knows who said it, and no one knows what really happened. But more than two thousand people suddenly fled. "Eastward!" the crowd shouted. The east side is far away from the river and is safe. "Go east! Go east!

It seems that the herd mentality has a great impact on people. There are many reasons for people to have the herd mentality. In a group, due to individual unwillingness Those who are unconventional and different feel isolated, but when their behaviors, attitudes and opinions are consistent with others, they will have a sense of "nothing wrong". Conformity stems from the invisible pressure of the group on themselves, forcing some members to act against their will. Behaviors that are contrary to one's own wishes.

Different types of people have different degrees of conformity. Generally speaking, there are more women than men; there are more introverts and inferiority complexes than extroverts and self-confidence. There are more people with low education than people with high education; more people with younger age than older people; more people with less social experience than people with rich social experience.

Herd behavior. It is reflected in all aspects, including work, life, and study. It is very meaningful for us to understand people's herd mentality and deal with its behavior appropriately. Some leaders' opinions are wrong, and some employees are afraid. If you oppose it and it will be detrimental to yourself in the future, you will vote in favor against your will. As a result, everyone behind you will vote in favor. If you can persist at this time, it will be beneficial to the future work of the unit; some teachers' problem solving. The method is not the best. Since many students do not object, most students imitate the teacher's problem-solving method. If you can come up with a better problem-solving method than the teacher's method at this time, it will not make you uncomfortable. Will many students avoid detours? Therefore, whether it is a leader or a teacher, it is very helpful to improve and improve their work. An old man took his grandson to sell donkeys at the market.

On the road, at first the grandson was riding a donkey while the grandfather was walking on the ground. Someone accused the grandson of being unfilial. The grandfather and grandson immediately changed places. As a result, someone accused the old man of abusing the child. So both of them got on the donkey, and an old man When the wife saw it, she complained about the donkey and said they didn't care about the donkey's life or death. Finally, the grandfather and grandson got off the donkey and followed it on foot. Soon they heard someone ridiculing: Look, they must be two fools, otherwise why would they let go? Why don’t you ride the ready-made donkey?

After hearing this, Grandpa sighed and said, “The other option is for us to carry the donkey and leave. ”

Although this is a joke, it profoundly reflects a phenomenon that we are often unaware of in our daily lives-the herd effect. The so-called herd effect means that individuals are influenced by the group. And doubt, change one's own opinions, judgments and behaviors in order to be consistent with others.

In life, everyone has a tendency to conform to varying degrees and always tends to follow the ideas of the majority. or attitude to prove that you are not alone.

Research has found that the number of people holding a certain opinion is the most important factor that affects conformity. "Many people" itself is a clear proof of persuasiveness. Few people can persist in their different opinions even when everyone agrees. Among the experiments that study the phenomenon of conformity, the most classic one is the "Ashe experiment".

In 1952, American psychologist Solomon Asch designed and implemented an experiment to study the extent to which people would be influenced by others and make obviously wrong judgments against their will. He asked college students to volunteer to be his subjects, telling them that the purpose of this experiment was to study human vision. When a college student who came to participate in the experiment walked into the laboratory, he found that there were already 5 people sitting there, and he could only sit in the sixth position. In fact, he didn't know that the other five people were fake subjects (so-called "shills") who had colluded with Axi.

Axi wants everyone to make a very easy judgment---compare the lengths of line segments. He took out a card with a vertical line on it, and then asked everyone to compare this line with which of the three lines on another card was the same length. Judgment*** was conducted 18 times. In fact, the difference in length of these lines is very obvious, and it is easy for normal people to make correct judgments.

However, after two normal judgments, the five fake subjects deliberately said a wrong answer in unison. As a result, many real subjects began to be confused. Should they firmly believe in their own eyesight, or would they give an answer that was the same as everyone else's but that they thought was incorrect?

From the overall results, an average of 33% of people judged that they were following the herd, and 76% of people made at least one judgment of following the herd. Under normal circumstances, the possibility of people making a wrong judgment is less than 1. Of course, there are 24 people who have not followed the crowd and answered according to their own correct judgment.

No matter how beautiful the trees are, the wind will destroy them. Pressure is a decisive factor in conformity. Within a system, whoever makes distinctive judgments or behaviors will often be isolated by other members or even severely punished. Therefore, the behavior of members within a system is often highly consistent. The experiment at the Hawthorne Factory in the United States illustrates this point very well: workers have a standard for their daily workload, and after completing this workload, they will obviously relax. Because anyone who exceeds the quota may cause managers to increase the quota, no one breaks the daily standards. In this way, if one person does too much, it is equivalent to offending everyone; but if one person does too little, he will be suspected of being a "worker". Therefore, anyone who does too much or too little will be reminded, and anyone who offends everyone may be abandoned. In order to avoid being abandoned, people will not "risk the world's disapproval", but will only adopt the approach of "following the crowd".

Buffett told this story in the 1985 annual report of Berkshire Hathaway: An oil tycoon was walking towards heaven, but St. Peter said to him: "You are qualified to live in it." , but the compound reserved for the oil tycoons is already full, and there is no way to squeeze you in."

After thinking for a while, the tycoon asked to say a word to the residents of the compound. This didn't seem to hurt St. Peter. So St. Peter agreed to the tycoon's request. The tycoon raised his lips and shouted loudly: "Oil has been discovered in hell!" The door of the compound soon opened, and the people inside poured out and rushed to hell.

St. Peter was so surprised that he invited the tycoon into the compound and asked him to take care of himself. The tycoon hesitated and said, "No, I think I should follow those people. There may be some truth in this rumor." After that, he also rushed towards hell.

Blindly following the crowd can stifle a person's enthusiasm and creativity. Whether you can reduce blind obedience, use your own rationality to judge right and wrong, and stick to your own judgment is the watershed between winners and losers.

Seiji Ozawa once went to Europe to participate in a conductor competition. During the top three finals, the judges gave him a sheet of music. During the performance, Seiji Ozawa suddenly discovered that there was a disharmony in the music. He thought that the performer had made a mistake, so he directed the orchestra to stop and play again, but the result still felt unnatural.

At this time, the authorities present solemnly stated that there was nothing wrong with the music score, but it was his illusion. Facing hundreds of international music authorities, he could not help but waver in his judgment. However, he thought twice and firmly believed that his judgment was correct, so he shouted: "No, the music score must be wrong!" As soon as his shout ended, the judges immediately gave him warm applause and congratulated him on winning the competition. . It turns out that this is a "trap" carefully designed by the judges to test whether the conductors can firmly believe in their own judgments when they find mistakes and the authorities refuse to admit them.

Most people believe that herd behavior stifles individual independent consciousness and judgment, so it is harmful but not beneficial. But in fact, the herd behavior must be viewed dialectically.