Tuesday January 27, 2009, 1:50 am
ahha... this explains the 'sheeple' mentality!

I was in my early teens when my mother challenged me to dare to be different; although she may have regretted her challenge in later years, I'm grateful she passed on this wisdom!
Thanx for sharing this report Gregory.

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 2:12 am
If only it was so simple.

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 2:24 am
CNN) -- You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others?


Imaging techniques help scientists look at the basis for principles of social psychology in the brain.

Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images.

A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the "oops area" becomes extra active, while the "reward area" slows down, making us think we are too different.

"We show that a deviation from the group opinion is regarded by the brain as a punishment," said Vasily Klucharev, postdoctoral fellow at the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands and lead author of the study. Watch to learn more about the study »

Participants, all female, had to rate 222 faces based on physical beauty on a scale from 1 to 8. Afterwards, researchers told each participant either that the average score was higher or that it was lower than her rating. Some participants were told the average rating was equal to her rating. The researchers then chatted with the participant before suddenly asking the participant to do the rating again. Most subjects changed their opinion toward the average.

The two leading theories of conformity are that people look to the group because they're unsure of what to do, and that people go along with the norm because they are afraid of being different, said Dr. Gregory Berns, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.

Berns' research, which he describes in the book "Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently," found that brain mechanisms associated with fear and anxiety do play a part in situations where a person feels his or her opinion goes against the grain.

Don't Miss
Why your brain can't always make good decisions
Putting a price on procrastination
You may be more racist than you think, study says
Participants looked at projections of three-dimensional objects, and had to identify which shapes were similar. As with the new study in Neuron, participants tended to shift their opinion to the majority view, although in this case the problems had objectively correct answers. The effect was also more potent in this experiment because actors were in the room to simulate a group with a shared opinion, he said.

But brain images revealed participants were not lying just to fit in. Changes in the activation of the visual part of the brain suggest the group opinion actually changed participants' perceptions of what they saw.

One reason behind conformity is that, in terms of human evolution, going against the group is not beneficial to survival, Berns said. There is a tremendous survival advantage to being in a community, he said.

"Our brains are exquisitely tuned to what other people think about us, aligning our judgments to fit in with the group," Berns said.

The most famous experiments in the field were conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. He found that many people gave incorrect answers about matching lines printed on cards, echoing the incorrect answers of the actors in the room.

But unlike Berns' finding that fear and anxiety relate to this effect, Asch saw conformity studies reflections of people's reliance on one another for knowledge of the world, experts say.

The darker side of conformity relates to Stanley Milgram's experiments of the 1960s and 1970s, in which most people obeyed orders to deliver electric shocks to an innocent person in the next room. As in these studies, subjects caved into social pressure, presumably going against their own previous moral convictions. Read more about the Milgram study

Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Positive thinking
The research calls into question decision-making bodies that operate by consensus, Berns said. For example, in the U.S. legal system, many cases are decided by the unanimous judgment of the members of a jury.

"You can't separate those judgments from the fact that you have 12 people who have to come to a unanimous decision, and have to conform their opinion to each other, so of course it will distort how they view evidence," he said.

"Any type of group decision-making process that does not require unanimous decisions is likely to make a better one," Berns said. "That applies to committees in particular."

What does it take to break the conformity effect?

Asch talked about the power of the "minority of one." When a unanimous group pressures the individual, that group is weakened as soon as one person breaks off.

"Anyone inclined to draw too pessimistic conclusions from this report would do well to remind himself that the capacities for independence are not to be underestimated," Asch wrote in a 1955 "Scientific American" article describing his research. "He may also draw some consolation from a further observation: Those who participated in this challenging experiment agreed nearly without exception that independence was preferable to conformity."

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 2:36 am
Simplicity is my motto Gregory :D

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 4:11 am
From early childhod on I have been the lonesome guy in shool and in the family. My family hated me for not swimming with the stream. But the benefit was that I could go on my very own way and understand certain things easier without to be too much influenced by the masses. I am very thankful for being that way.

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 6:44 am
I have brain damage. I don't think like the masses. I guess some of us are blessed!

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 12:16 pm
"*You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others? *"

I think this is obvious. Most people have not been empowered enough to feel they can "speak their mind", and so they go along with the crowd, despite any misgivings they may actually have. Most have been taught to "not rock the boat", "leave it to the experts", etc, and think that those who do speak up for their own truth are just loud-mouths who want attention.

The majority of people in America immediately after 9-11 seems alike a great example.

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 4:56 pm
Since America USED to put great store in Individualism, I would've thought it would be harder to influence Americans.. but this Does explain Reich-wing attachments to FAUX News!;)

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 5:27 pm
The only "individualism" I have ever come across in the US is the kind that everyone else is practicing.

that and plain old Dual-ism. As in boring, dichotomous thinking.

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 11:05 pm
Well we humans are a 'herd' animal. Being such a species, nature saw fit to have us be more concerned with belonging, thus lessening dissenters, making living communally easier and group supporting so we could survive and thrive. Of course there are always the rogues (thank goodness) to stir things up and help us evolve beyond the 'mob'/herd mentality. Thus the price of being a social species.

Ummm Sir Walkadelic where did you observe real "individualism" outside the USA?

Tuesday January 27, 2009, 11:10 pm
9/11 was a threat to the human community. Under threat all social species become 'alike' (like-minded) to band and face a threat. We are after all animals and nature programmed us thus.
But I'll pull for those that march to a different drummer as at the very least they make us uncomfortable and hopefully enough to make us think.

Wednesday January 28, 2009, 12:25 am
We each have the potential to apply a scientific approach to reality, to discover what is true and what is not, rather than simply believing what other people believe. In fact, this scientific approach is a sign that someone is amongst the most psychologically healthy 5-20% of people.

If you want to read more about this, then I recommend:

"Life and How to Survive It" by John Cleese and Robin Skynner

Wednesday January 28, 2009, 4:58 am
Hello:)
WE have all been created different from eachothers,we are all unique on this planet,may be we dont dare most of the time to show that we think differently not to be excluded from the crowd,not to face the others,
If we find a peaceful way to express ourselves,then we may dare to be different
Peace on earth

Wednesday January 28, 2009, 11:35 am
And the sheeple go along when all they hear broadcasted at them 50-100 times a day is di$information.