" It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - J. Krishnamurti
It has been rightly said that great things are not accomplished by those who yield to popular opinion. Nevertheless, the herd mentality has lived on - indeed, herd behaviour has always been a characteristic of human society. Down the years, fashion rather than style, examination results rather than sound education, keeping up with the Joneses rather than following an individual lifestyle, 'copycat' productions rather than original creations have been the order of the day. The herd mentality has been further reinforced by the advance of information technology - that is, it has weakened individuality and strengthened the pull of the many.
The herd instinct has been defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as "a situation in which people act like everyone else without considering the reason why". Elsewhere it has been explained as "emotional pressure to agree with and act like other members of the group". For example, we observe how most schools follow certain fads from time to time, daily newspapers follow the same stories, television news channels give out the same sound bites and it is well known what 'herding' can do to investor behaviour. It is believed that the dot-com bubble rose and collapsed on account of herd behaviour.
Children apply enormous pressure on their parents to buy them the latest toy, gadget or gizmo that their friends possess. Of course there is a certain natural pleasure in owning the same kind of things that one's friends have, but there is reason for concern when it is extended to expensive phones, watches, trendy haircuts, party themes and even holidays abroad. Children's self-esteem, and, it appears, their happiness, become strongly associated with the acquisition of articles that 'everyone has' and with doing what 'everyone is doing'. Yet many parents do not seem to understand that it is precisely not giving in to every such demand that succeeds in developing individuality and appreciation in children.
Herd behaviour is particularly in evidence immediately after the school-leaving board examinations are announced. These exams keep yielding impossibly high scores which seem to be getting higher with each succeeding year. This phenomenon is dangerous for more reasons than that of generating anxiety among students about escalating cut-off percentages for entry into college. In addition to the anxiety factor, is the demoralizing effect that these scores have on students who have been academically proficient and cerebrally superior but whose examination performance has been just short of the sky-scraping scores attained by so many. Whatever we teachers may say about the luck factor in examinations and about examination scores not mattering in the long run, the self-esteem of most of these students takes a battering. In these circumstances, the herd mentality takes over and self-belief becomes a casualty. It is when they instinctively follow the herd that even bright students feel that the results of a single examination are indicative of a person's intellectual worth. So it is perhaps not surprising that we find students deeply upset about securing 'only' 96 per cent. Then there is the student who has applied for an official review of four out of six of her examination papers even though she has already got admission in an American university. How do you fathom students who do not feel any elation about their good examination results? One student hastened to explain why she was not particularly overjoyed. She said that she had indeed secured excellent marks but "so had everyone else".
This inflationary trend of marks generates another kind of herd behaviour which has far-reaching consequences. It is the en masse resolve of higher secondary students to just focus intensively and exclusively on securing top scores in their Board examinations or in entrance tests for professional institutions. This preoccupation leads to the virtual suspension of intellectual growth, creativity and independent learning. At this juncture, it is rare to come across a student who is unaffected by this form of herd behaviour and refuses to go with the flow. As a result, the tutorial homes and coaching classes preparing students for the Class XII school-leaving examinations, or for competitive entrance tests, fill up even before the students have completed their Class X examinations.
The herd instinct is closely related to another social influence called groupthink. Ironically, this can be a weak feature of democratic set-ups. Groupthink, a term coined by the social psychologist, Irving Janis, occurs when the members of a group are like-minded, similar in background and are insulated from outside opinions. Many members of the group profess the same thing, and there is "a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgement". Of the several symptoms of groupthink that Janis lays down, some are perhaps worth considering here. Group members tend to believe in the 'rightness' of their cause and therefore ignore the moral consequences of their decisions. Moreover, members are under pressure not to express arguments against the group's views. Solomon Asch's famous experiment demonstrated the strange compulsion to conform even when individuals knew that something was clearly wrong. In social media groups like WhatsApp, members are afraid of being 'trolled' if they dare to express a different point of view. The majority view is assumed to be unanimous and doubts are never expressed. Most important, "the cohesiveness of the group is held sacred" and there is an illusion of invulnerability; after all, there is the comforting safety of numbers. In a classroom situation, it is the rare student who will not mind standing out like a sore thumb by expressing a completely different point of view. Examples of groupthink 'fiascos' given by Janis include decisions by the United States of America with regard to the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Vietnam war and the invasion of Iraq.
Corrective measures of groupthink decisions that have been recommended are to have individuals playing the role of devil's advocate and the encouragement of constant questioning of assumptions and decisions. The group leader must always consider opposing points of view and study alternative actions. Critical evaluation is essential to counter erroneous assumptions.
In order to process information and arrive at rationally considered decisions, students have to be taught to be wary of 'attribution'. Attribution plays a powerful role in forming opinion, shaping behaviour and generating action. As individuals we constantly assign motives to other people - be it a facial expression or an act of commission or omission. For example, if a person is silent on a subject, it can be interpreted as assent, secretiveness or cagey behaviour or just that the person is in a reticent mood. This is the reason why students and teachers must communicate freely and not jump to conclusions about what the other actually believed or meant. Attribution is the reason why it is said that there is no such thing as objective history. Subjectivity inevitably creeps in the moment interpretation begins.
Another source of social influence that has an impact on the behaviour of individuals as well as of large groups is the compulsion to obey authority. Obedience is not always a good thing. It is required in certain situations such as war or emergencies but in most circumstances the sane voice of contradiction or dissent must be heard by the leader. I remember that I used to resent the customary closing of a letter when we were taught to sign off as "Yours obediently". As for the marriage vows of the woman "to love, honour, cherish and obey" - I used to wonder how a self-respecting woman could possibly utter the last promise. Obedience always involves a more powerful person - your teacher, your principal, your boss, your political party leader or any other person who can affect your fortunes. (I have left out parents because they are meant to love you unconditionally - whether you obey them or not.) We have often heard the expression, "She knows on which side her bread is buttered." So it is unlikely that a student will displease a teacher, or an employee his boss, because of the possible consequences. The strange part is that the person obeying the boss against her conscience, or her own best judgment, will soon rationalize her action to get over the discomfort of dissonance.
Everyone understands the power of the master's voice, but what about the power of one in the most unlikely of scenarios? Stanley Milgram's classic experiment demonstrated the chilling phenomenon of blind obedience. It displayed to a shocked audience that people would carry out the most harmful of instructions if given by 'authority'. According to Milgram, this happens because the persons obeying the order feel no ownership - accountability and responsibility are transferred to the source of authority. It is vital to teach young people the importance of disobedience in the right context. Centuries ago, Aristotle had declared, "All persons ought to endeavour to follow what is right, and not what is established." However, you need to have plenty of courage to stand up to authority in the form of the power of one. In this context, it is necessary to point out that sometimes we can fall prey to the 'colourable' or indirect use of power. For example, a person who has nothing to do with your organization is usually appeased because of what he or she can do to you or for you and your organization from his exalted position of power or wealth.
No doubt a certain degree of conformity is required in society but as Nietzsche put it, one should renounce the bad taste of wishing to agree with many people. Education must equip students to have minds of their own. Young people must learn that the truth is not easy to arrive at. A single authority voicing his opinion, or many people repeating the same thing or text books giving the same information can all be sources of falsehoods. Students must think critically, learn independently, display intellectual and moral courage, develop their individual sense of right and wrong and their own sense of self-worth. This is a tall order but one way to achieve this is to make students aware of the negative effects of social influences.
The author is director, Modern High School for Girls, Calcutta |
