Hive Mind
During psychology yesterday, we conducted a small experiment that exhibits the characteristics of group think. The professor had a bottle of what she said was the essence of what they add to natural gas to make it smell like rotten eggs. She said she was going to open the bottle and we were going to raise our hands when we detected it. She opened it and stepped back quickly, after about 30 seconds, I thought I smelt something, so I raised my hand. One other person near my also raised his hand.
As it turns out, there was nothing in that bottle but water, which she demonstrated by spraying me with. I’m not so upset about being sprayed as learning of my susceptibility to suggestion. In social situations, I’ve always brandished my charisma around and mostly got people to do as I want, but I never thought that I’m just as easily swayed.
So, I’ve decided I’m going to be (or try) to be completely self-reliant. I’m going to depend on my own senses and my own logic rather than allow others to influence me. This is sort of funny/hypocritical, as this decision was influenced by my psychology professor and her little social experiment.
