What does the psychological law of imitation and conformity inspire management education?

Enlightenment of psychological law of imitation and conformity to management education

When I was studying psychology, there was such a case. There is a class of students in a school who are unwilling to go to school. Only one of them works hard. The student got good grades, and the teacher attached great importance to him. However, this student feels that he is not gregarious, and his classmates don't accept him and regard him as an alternative. The student felt very lonely, slowly gave up the energy of studying hard, and finally went with the flow.

This common psychological phenomenon is imitation and conformity. The psychological phenomenon of imitation and conformity refers to that when individuals are influenced by groups (guidance or pressure), they will doubt and change their opinions, judgments and behaviors, and change in the direction consistent with the majority of the group, which is what people usually call "conformity". There are many examples of psychological phenomena of imitation and conformity. Here is a story. An old man took his grandson to the market to sell donkeys. On the road, at first, the grandson rode a donkey and grandpa walked on the ground. Someone accused the grandson of being unfilial. Grandpa and grandson immediately changed places, and as a result, some people accused the old man of abusing children; So both of them got on the donkey, and an old lady cried foul for the donkey after seeing it, saying that they didn't care about the donkey's life; Finally, they both got off the donkey and walked away with it. Soon, they heard someone sneer: Look! It must be two idiots, otherwise why not ride a ready-made donkey? Grandpa listened, sighed and said, "There is another option: we carry the donkey."

Although this is a joke, it profoundly reflects the role of imitation and conformity in our daily life. The story of imitation and conformity effect was first seen in primary schools. The story is: "Burst" an apple fell into the water, and the timid rabbit ran away when it heard the noise. Goats and wild horses ran with rabbits when they saw them running, and later even bold lions and tigers ran with them. Originally, an apple fell into the water, which was nothing serious, but everyone ran with it. This is conformity. The conformity effect is very common in life now. The list goes on.

Why do people have imitation and conformity effects? Because in life, everyone has different degrees of imitation and conformity tendency, and always tends to follow the thoughts or attitudes of most people to prove that they are not isolated. It is found that the number of people who hold a certain view is the most important factor affecting conformity, and "many people" itself is a convincing proof. Few people can stick to their different opinions even if they speak in unison. The beauty of wood in the forest will be destroyed by the wind. Pressure is the decisive factor of conformity. In a system, whoever makes distinctive judgments or behaviors will often be isolated or even severely punished by other members, so the behaviors of members in the system are often highly consistent. The experiment in American Hawthorne factory illustrates this point well: the daily workload of workers is standard, and after completing these workloads, they will obviously relax. Because anyone who overfulfils may increase the number of managers, no one breaks the daily standard. In this way, one person who goes too far is equal to offending everyone; But I did too little, and I was suspected of "muddling along". So whoever does too much or too little will be reminded, and whoever offends everyone may be abandoned. In order to avoid being abandoned, people will not "take the world by storm", but only "follow the crowd".

There are three stages of imitation and conformity: one is verbal dissatisfaction, the other is habit of oral intake, and the third is individual integration into the team. Moreover, it is easy to follow the crowd: men are easier than women, introverts with inferiority are easier than confident extroverts, and deep experience is easier than shallow experience. There are more people with low academic qualifications than those with high academic qualifications; There are more young people than old people.

Conformity psychology should be divided into two parts and analyzed dialectically. One is that in the face of existing axioms and facts, sometimes we have to "conform". For example, "hens can lay eggs, cocks can't lay eggs"-this common sense that everyone admits, who can't follow it? In daily communication, nodding your head means affirmation and shaking your head means negation, which are just the opposite in a certain place in India. When you get there, if you don't "do as the Romans do", it is often difficult to move. Secondly, blind conformity will stifle a person's enthusiasm and creativity. Here is a real example. Seiji Ozawa, a Japanese, went to Europe to take part in the command competition. In the top three finals, the judges gave him a song. During the performance, Seiji Ozawa suddenly found that there was some disharmony in the music, thinking that the performer had made a mistake, so he directed the band to stop and play once, but the result still felt unnatural. At this time, the authorities present solemnly declared that there was nothing wrong with the score, but his illusion. Faced with hundreds of international music authorities, he could not help but shake his judgment. But after careful consideration, he firmly believed that his judgment was correct, so he shouted, "No, the score must be wrong!" " As soon as his shouts fell, the judges immediately gave him warm applause and congratulated him on winning the game. It turns out that this is a "trap" carefully designed by the judges to test whether the commanders can firmly believe their own judgments when they find mistakes and the authorities don't admit them. Blind conformity will stifle a person's enthusiasm and creativity. Whether we can reduce blind obedience, judge right and wrong with our own reason and stick to our own judgment is the watershed between winners and losers.

Therefore, in life, we should carry forward the positive side of "conformity", avoid the negative side of "conformity", and strive to cultivate and improve our ability to think independently and distinguish right from wrong; When encountering and looking at problems, we should not only carefully consider the opinions and practices of most people, but also have our own thinking and analysis, so that our judgment can be correct and our actions can be decided accordingly. It is unacceptable to "conform" or "oppose conformity" in everything.