Discussion Board 2: First, read the article "Why Do People Follow the Crowd?" 1) In your first paragraph, summarize the article. 2) In the second paragraph, connect the psychology of following others with genocide. by Kaleigh Dixson

solee27_student — 2024-02-01 01:44:04 UTC

Dr. Gregory Berns was trying to found out why are people so conformist in a series of experiments. Those experiments confirmed that most of the people are conformists, but there are still some people that are not. Dr. Gregory Berns used a fMRI to check out what was happening in people's brains during the experiments and he found out that his subject's brains were scrambling messages, people were believing what others told them they were seeing, not what they saw with their own eyes. For those who went against the group, their brain lit up in the amygdala, and that shows that people are afraid of standing alone. Dr. Gregory Bern's experiments suggests that that our brain gets confused between what it sees and what others tell us.

Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation of group. The example of Germans following Adolf Hitler down the path of death and destruction shows that the psychology actually connects with genocide. Those Germans probably followed Adolf Hitler because lots of people were following him and that they were afraid of standing alone. The femicide in Jaurez is also a very good example because most of people there are brutally killing women so more and more people joined them because that seemed like the right thing to do.

Shianne Chen

schen27_student — 2024-02-04 07:16:06 UTC

Dr. Gregory Berns, a professor of psychiatry and behavior science at Atlanta’s Emory University, tried to figure out why people follow the crowd. He designed a series of experiments, including a test of visual perception and an unruly dinner with strangers. Although some participants followed their hearts, the majority of the participants were largely affected by the crowd, confirming Dr. Gregory’s guess. Dr. Gregory found out that when people follow the crowd, their brains light up in the vision interpretation area, which makes people believe what others tell them rather than what they see by themselves. For people who go against the crowd, their brains light up in the center of fear, signifying that they are afraid of standing alone. Overall, the experiments suggest that people are conformists because our brains mix up what we see and what others tell us.

Being conformist can have negative consequences, such as genocide. Genocide is the killing of a group to wipe out the group. Among many factors of genocide, conforming has a very large impact. People tend to follow the crowd and are afraid of being left out, causing them to ignore ethics and morals. The genocide of the Jews is an example. As mentioned in the article, the Germans followed Hitler’s policy of Anti-Jews, leading to the disaster of Jews’ death and destruction. The psychology of following the crowd and genocide are tightly connected.

Well Liang

wliang27_student — 2024-02-05 04:57:55 UTC

Due to the two experiments, the “Failing a test,” and the “Social Graces” experiments, we can know that people follow the crowd. The organizer invited random people to enroll in the experiments. First, in the “Failing a test” experiment, the organizer told all people to finish a test. After everyone finished the test, they told the majority of people to shout specific, wrong answers, and the rest of the people with correct answers on their test followed the majority and shouted out the wrong answers as well. Second, in the “Social Graces” experiment, the organizer invited random participants to have dinner in a great restaurant, and two of their employees attended as well. They were given the order to behave outlandish such as licking their fingers and picking their teeth. Then, using an fMRI, the organizer found out that, people who tend to follow the majority, will have their subjects’ brains lit up not in the area where thinking takes place, but in the back of the brain, where vision is interpreted. Later, using the fMRI on the ones who went against the group, the organizer found out that, their brains lit up in a place called the amygdala, AKA “the fear center of the brain.” The organizer considered their “fear,” the “fear of being alone.”

The psychology of people following the crowd can be strongly related to genocide, the deliberate killing of a huge amount of people. There are two possibilities in people's minds when tending to follow or go against the majority. People who tend to follow the majority, tend to believe what others tell them they see, but not what they see on their own. People who tend to go against the majority have a self, but still, they will feel fear when having their own, different, or unique opinion. In genocide, this kind of fear would be amplified because people who have strong selves are still afraid of being different and being alone. In genocide, things relate to lives and murder and are more terrifying. They are fear of being different and getting killed, so they tend to support the murdering majority. In my personal opinion, I think that important politicians' propaganda and brainwashing mostly cause and guide what people think.

Emily

Emily_Chen_0602 — 2024-02-05 12:07:57 UTC

Dr. Gregory Berns is a professor who is trying to figure out why do people fallow crowd? "But why are people so conformist?" This is what Dr. Gregory Berns asked. A falling test, is the experiment that Dr. Gregory do, they gathered a group of people together for a test of "visual perception." This test is to rotate some 3D shapes thing and see whether they were the same or different. During the test, a girl tells everyone to follow her lead. And there are a boy called Tony, he agree with all the answer no matter it the answer is right or wrong. Tony just went alone with the people.

The next experience is Social Graces, they invite a group of strangers to Jean George’s restaurant, the people explained the experiment aimed to break social norms and observed that people tend to follow the behavior of others.

Adam Chien

achien27_student — 2024-02-05 12:44:37 UTC

This article talks about a professor of behavioral science, Dr. Gregory Berns. He wants to know why people follow the crowd and why people are so conformist. To accomplish his investigation, he starts testing people. One of his tests was "visual perception"; this test compares what people see and think. The purpose of this experiment is that Dr Berns wants to know if one person's vision and thoughts can easily change everyone else's thoughts. The result of the experiment is that they found out that some people can easily be brainwashed by what others say, and only a few people will support their thoughts. After a while, Dr Berns has a result explaining two ways of conformist behavior. One: "People know what their eyes are telling them, and yet they choose to ignore it and go along with the group of belong to the group." Second: "Hearing other opinions, even if they are wrong, can change what people see and distort our perceptions."

People Following The Crowd, this topic was severe, and it connects the psychology of following others with genocide. The example that was put in this article is that during World War II, many Germans followed Adolf Hitler's idea of putting the Jews to death and destruction. It is because he was the leader of the Germans, and what he said and thought could easily change what the civilians thought about it. Back to the podcast "The Woman In Juarez." In that podcast, it says that women in Mexico have very few rights compared to men; women will always need to listen to men and sometimes do things they don't want to do. This is connected to the article "Why Do People Follow The Crowd?" There must be people leading and changing everyone else's thoughts about women for their rights and cast.

2024-02-05 15:31:42 UTC

Dr Bern was trying to do experiment some people to see why people would follow other direction with paying or not paying attention, and also find thing else that most of the people would follow others because most people do as well

I think genocide is affecting peoples personalities and thinking, and genocide side mostly will cause people to starting to thinking other instead of their own

Sharon

slee27_student — 2024-02-05 15:58:42 UTC

Dr. Gregory Berns to understand why people tend to conform to the opinions and behaviors of a group. In the experiment, participants were influenced by others in a visual perception test and a social setting at a restaurant. also, the use of fMRI showed that during the decision the brain activity was in the area responsible for interpreting vision suggesting a mix of personal perception and social influence. The results revealed that individuals often conform, even when they know the group's actions or opinions are incorrect. The experiment highlighted the fear of standing alone as a factor in non-conformity, in the article people will follow the crowd due to confusion between personal observations and social input. Awareness of this tendency may help individuals resist conformity.

the article explores the psychological of phenomenon conformity. the experiment involves individuals conforming to a group opinion, even when they know the group action or the opinion is wrong. it's indicating that a blending of personal perception and social influence, maybe they will feel fear of standing alone as a signified in a non-conformity.

Champion

cchou27_student — 2024-02-06 15:15:46 UTC

Dr. Gregory Berns, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Atlanta’s Emory University attempted to answer the question of why people are so conformist by conducting experiments that consisted of a dinner with strangers and a written test. The results of these experiments confirmed Dr. Berns's original guess as although a small number of participants didn't change their answers, the majority of participants changed their answers based on the crowd. Additionally, Dr. Berns discovered that when people went against the group, their brains lit up in a place called the amygdala, and when they went with the crowd, their brains were scrambling messages and actually believed what others told them.

Dangerous consequences such as Genocide can be caused by conforming. One main example includes the genocide of the Jews that took place during World War 2, led by A**lf Hit**r. This example perfectly describes how the Germans decided to follow Hi**er's Anit-Jews policy which led to the destruction of the Jews.

bho27_student — 2024-02-14 18:17:16 UTC

In this article, it mention about people always follow the crowd. They even do experiments to prove it. They found out if too many people have the opposite thought than you, we seem to follow them. And it's because "the fear center of the brain", which is in a place called the amygdala lit up.

The connection between the psychology of following others with genocide, I think it will affect the end of genocide. At the place that have genocide, often have stereotype to cause genocide happen, and they think they're right. If people always follow the crowd, then the genocide will never end. People mostly think they are right, even if some one think of any point that not right. They'll be afraid to say out, because others didn't have the same thinking of them.

Ian

ilin27_student — 2024-02-21 13:48:59 UTC

This article are talking abut Dr. Gregory Bern’s experiment exploring the tendency for people to conform to group behavior. And Dr. Gregory Berns discovered that people often change what they think or do to fit in with a group, even if they know what's right. Brain scans showed this happens because we want to be liked and fear being alone. Knowing this might help us stand up for ourselves and make choices that are right for us.