Monday, April 03, 2006

This might sound weird...

...but I just finished reading The Tipping Point, and in that book Malcolm Gladwell cites tons of studies discussing typical human reactions to certain situations.

For example:

When one person crosses the street in front of you, you are more likely to then cross the street yourself.

Or:

There is a whole page or two about how yawning is contagious. If someone else yawns, you are much more likely to yawn, and even just reading the word yawn on the page makes you yawn more often (did you just yawn?).

For whatever reason, I always want to be different. I always think to myself that I would never cross the street just because someone else did! Or I consciously thought about not yawning when I read those pages. This issue first really came to my attention during Intro to Psychology, when I read about a million psychological experiments. The Stanford Prison Experiment was one of the more extreme, but fascinating ones. I wouldn't have started beating prisoners, would I have?

Does anyone else feel the same way as I do? Or am I just bizarre?

3 comments:

  1. If you can get it Das Experiment is a fantastic German movie based on that study.

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  2. I am with you Rich, always, about everything.

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  3. thanks to both commenters. yeah, i noticed Das Experiment...looks pretty interesting, i'll see what i can do.

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