The Boston Tea Party. By Morphart Creation @ Shutterstock.com
Lest it be forgotten, America is a revolutionary country. Before there was a “Vive la révolution” in France or a “Viva la revolución” in Cuba, Americans were leading the world in throwing off the shackles of oppressive government. In fact, America has inspired many of the world’s revolutions. But Americans of late have become less than enthusiastic about defying authority. At Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola wonders, “Why are people so obedient?” He writes:
Plans for a totalitarian future are dependent on obedience of the masses. Without compliance, criminal authoritarians cannot succeed in their plans to gain control over society and humanity. Given the choice, it seems clear that most people would choose freedom and autonomy. Yet, history shows a different reality, one in which an evil few succeeded in laying down a nefarious path and gaining supporters to walk down it.
So, why are people so obedient, even when following along parts ways with their morals and belief systems? Academy of Ideas, which aims to promote freedom by creating videos highlighting some of the world’s greatest thinkers, spells it out in the video above.1
In short, humans may be biologically wired to go with the flow and stick with the majority group, even if they don’t agree with its intentions. But there are ways that you can consciously opt out.
Asch Conformity Experiments Show Power of Peer Pressure
In the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch conducted a now-classic social psychology experiment on a group of college students.2 They were shown a card with a line on it, then shown a second card with multiple lines and asked to choose which line was the same length as that on the first card. Only one answer was clearly correct.
The students were placed into groups with actors who, on the third trial, all gave the same wrong answer to the test. In this case, the students tended to follow along with the group, even though their responses were obviously incorrect.3 According to Academy of Ideas:4
“Rather than state the obvious truth, the test subjects gave the same wrong answer as the group 37% of the time, and of the 123 test subjects who took part in this experiment, two-thirds went along with the group at least once.
Asch’s experiment confirms what philosophers have been reiterating for thousands of years: for most human beings conforming to what others say and do — no matter how objectively false or absurd — takes precedence over adapting to reality and discovering the truth.”
The video then quotes psychologist Todd Rose, prior faculty member at Harvard University and author of the book, “Collective Illusions,” which suggests, “The desire to fit in is one of the most powerful, least understood forces in a society.”5 He posits that humans’ desire to belong and connect socially is so strong that it drives our behaviors, even when they’re against our own best interests.
“Most of us would rather be fully in sync with the social norms of our respective groups than true to who we are,” according to Collective Illusions.6 Further, he says:7
“… We care about being in the numerical majority even when we don’t necessarily care about the group and even when the group opinion is merely an illusion. Acting on instinct, in social situations our brains don’t actually bother to make the distinction between appearance and reality …
Even in the absence of intentional pressure or incentives, we like to go along with what we think is the consensus because, quite simply, we’re biologically wired to do so.”
Milgram Experiment Showed the Power of an Order
The tendency to obey at any cost, even in the absence of an incentive to do so, was also illustrated in The Milgram experiment, which was conducted following the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who used the Nuremberg defense, or “befehl ist befehl,” which translates to “an order is an order.”
The Milgram experiment showed that people would act against their own judgment and harm another person to extreme lengths simply because they were told to do so.
The subjects first experienced a 45-volt shock themselves — so they would know what it felt like — then administered the shocks in increasing intervals. They were labeled from 15 to 450 volts — from slight shock all the way up to “extreme intensity shock,” “danger: severe shock,” and the strongest voltage, “XXX.” According to Gregorio Billikopf Encina with the University of California:8
“In response to the supposed jolts, the ‘learner’ (actor) would begin to grunt at 75 volts; complain at 120 volts; ask to be released at 150 volts; plead with increasing vigor, next; and let out agonized screams at 285 volts.
Eventually, in desperation, the learner was to yell loudly and complain of heart pain. At some point the actor would refuse to answer any more questions. Finally, at 330 volts the actor would be totally silent-that is, if any of the teacher participants got so far without rebelling first.”
Ultimately, 65% of the subjects continued through the study and administered the maximum voltage level, even though they knew it was wrong.
Read more here.
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