Social Conformity - The Bystander Effect

Very interesting video on how group mentality stops people from lending a hand when someone is sick on the ground.

As the video description states, i wonder how public opinion is shaped when they spend so much time watching the news that has conflicting opinions to their own,
and may eventually dismiss their own thoughts on a matter so that they are not seen as crazy.

This has a profound effect when it comes to public opinion on such issues as war, corruption, conspiracy (fact) theories and even what happened on 9/11, since the majority of people watch main stream media television, and the social conformity will be based on what they see on the news often bypassing their own opinions so as not to be the outcast.

9/11 is a great example on this, since so much of the media goes with the official report and often ridicules anyone they interview that has opposing views.
below is a good video that dissects a FOX news interview by someone who is trained in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)



With the advent of video and discussion boards (Web 2.0) i certainly feel that social conformity will be less of an issue due to the fact that so many people with similar views can connect and discuss issues that they question.

An interesting fact when Solomon Asch did these experiments in the 50's was that people were less pressured to conform to the majority when they had another person agree with them.

More on Solomon Asch's experiment

video of the original experiment


[edit on 12-7-2010 by Sianara]

This applies to the UFO situation, too.
We are told by our authorities that UFOs don't exist yet we see them with our own eyes and get confused.
We are made to question our sanity even though we may have caught these things on camera.

Also, since the masses in general conform to the idea that UFOs are all hoaxes, hallucinations, the individual is made to conform to that idea without having done any research at all!

I was a victim of such a thing after 911. I was 17 years old and still in high school when 911 took place and that "group mentality" definitely took hold of me for a while. I was not aware of the facts of this world at that time yet and didn't yet have my head out of the sand. I was still rapped up in the world that public schooling had created around me, still thinking that those in authoritative positions were teaching me "the facts". As a result of this when I started hearing information from the other side of the argument, I was almost completely shut down to any of it. My whole life I had been taught to respect those of authority and thought that those that thought various other things about such events were crazies. My religious background was also a factor in conforming me, I think. It took me a long time to break free from those chains and I credit sites like ATS for making me realize that I was bound in slavery. Not that this site alone has shaped my view of the world but merely that ATS made me realize that there were more than just a few people out there that made a lot more sense out of things than the OS.

Sometimes I wonder though if as time goes by and the more you conform, the more you lose your ability to think for yourself? I see family and friends around me daily that are still asleep and it makes me wonder if in some ways when you constantly conform if you can ever break free. It seems that the older people get the less they want to understand things that their minds cannot conceive at the present moment. It's almost like they are so afraid that if they see the truth that it will completely destroy the world they have worked so hard to build around themselves.

I wonder if there is anything we can do about the conformist attitudes in our society all the time. It scares me to think that those I love will live and die never fully understanding their own capabilities. But how do you get through to those that choose to be slaves? How do you help break the chains of those that only listen to those they think have the authority to tell them how this world works and how they should live their lives?