Deciding to be herd

This is the age of the individual, right? Never before, particularly in the affluent developed world, has an individual been afforded such power via technology to be themselves and to exist in isolation. Along with this individuating technology we have the breakdown of monolithic cultural theisms so that we are free to be who want to be. So why is it that everyone has to have the latest smartphone? Why is it that what is “trending” on Twitter matters? Why do you have to buy new clothes each year just because the old ones, while serviceable, are no longer fashionable? Why is it that when a Hollywood star-stud forgets to have a haircut and shave that half the planet decides to grow their hair and a beard? It’s because underneath the techno-smart-i-slick-clooney-share patina of 21st century humanity lies a herd mentality. Not there is anything wrong with a herd mentality…should there be any wildebeest reading…but according to a new study it can lead to some bad decisions.

Herd mentality manifests in many ways. It might be a wildebeest deciding to veer to the right during a stampede just because second cousin Ethel has done it. It might be Zoe choosing a brand of smartphone because all her friends have that brand. There is some sense to this but there is also a cost.

In the new study the researchers used mathematical modelling to analyse how social information use has evolved within animal groups. The analysis revealed that individuals overly rely on social information and are too readily influenced by what their neighbours are doing. (If you think that is not true of humans then consider the study previously reported in this news column showing that people are happier the more sex they are having but only when they think they are having more sex than their neighbours!)

The mathematical modelling showed that evolution will lead individuals to copy others far more than they should. The result is groups become unresponsive to changes in the environment because they have become self-referencing. The challenge for the individual is when their own personal beliefs contradict what others are doing. If the group is not responding to an environmental change it is very difficult for the individual to trust themselves enough to step outside the momentum of the group…you don’t see a lemming sitting waving at its friends who are at the bottom of the cliff.

There are all sorts of areas where the human herd mentality is leading it astray…your challenge is to rise above the dust and thunder of the stampede and trust what you know.