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Thread: Herd mentality: Are we programmed to make bad decisions?

  1. #1

    Herd mentality: Are we programmed to make bad decisions?

    Depressing...

    Research led by the University of Exeter has shown that individuals have evolved to be overly influenced by their neighbours, rather than rely on their own instinct. As a result, groups become less responsive to changes in their natural environment.

    The collaborative international study, which includes academics from Princeton University and both the Sorbonne Universites and Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) in France, is published in the Royal Society journal Interface.

    Lead author of the report, Dr Colin Torney, from the University of Exeter's Mathematics department explained: "Social influence is a powerful force in nature and society.

    "Copying what other individuals do can be useful in many situations, such as what kind of phone to buy, or for animals, which way to move or whether a situation is dangerous.

    "However, the challenge is in evaluating personal beliefs when they contradict what others are doing. We showed that evolution will lead individuals to over use social information, and copy others too much than they should.

    "The result is that groups evolve to be unresponsive to changes in their environment and spend too much time copying one another, and not making their own decisions. "

    The team used mathematical models to look at how the use of social information has evolved within animal groups.
    By using a simple model of decision-making in a dynamic environment, the team were able to show that individuals overly rely on social information and evolve to be too readily influenced by their neighbours. The team suggest this is due to a "classic evolutionary conflict between individual and collective interest".

    Dr Torney said: "Our results suggest we shouldn't expect social groups in nature to respond effectively to changing environments. Individuals that spend too much time copying their neighbours is likely to be the norm."
    The study, Social information use and the evolution of unresponsiveness in collective systems, is published in the journal Interface on December 17 2014.

    Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-herd-me...sions.html#jCp



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  3. #2
    Every human being makes mistakes every single day. If you don't think so, that's just one more mistake for you today.

    "In individuals, insanity is rare, but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule." -- (Nietzsche, 'Beyond Good and Evil')
    Last edited by Ronin Truth; 12-21-2014 at 08:45 AM.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Ronin Truth View Post
    Every human being makes mistakes every single day. If you don't think so, that's just one more mistake for you today.

    You commenting with quotes now? I miss the google searches.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    You commenting with quotes now? I miss the google searches.
    https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...10.ZrdOJnPCkgg

  6. #5
    Research led by the University of Exeter has shown that individuals have evolved to be overly influenced by their neighbours,
    Seems like another contra-city argument..........

  7. #6
    Using the term Herd allows them to continued to think of us as animals. Pavlov would be proud of the classic conditioning of people. SMDH.
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  8. #7
    "A nation of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." -- Bertrand de Jouvenal

  9. #8
    Humans are animals. Get over your $#@!ing delusions that we're 'better' or 'different' from every other living organism.
    Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. -James Madison



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by James Madison View Post
    Humans are animals. Get over your $#@!ing delusions that we're 'better' or 'different' from every other living organism.
    According to the late Bob LeFevre, only about 5% of mankind is civilized.

  12. #10
    5% might be very generous.
    Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. -James Madison

  13. #11
    I'm not inclined to follow the crowd, even under intense pressure to do so. Life would be very boring if there wasn't the freedom to disagree.

    What I find is the choice not to follow the crowd can sometimes be isolating, but I tend toward introversion anyway, so I can live without people who feel I have to fit into their box.

    That doesn't mean I make good decisions all the time, but I am generally happy with the decisions I make.
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by James Madison View Post
    Humans are animals. Get over your $#@!ing delusions that we're 'better' or 'different' from every other living organism.

    Speak for yourself.

    Genesis 1:26
    "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by James Madison View Post
    Humans are animals. Get over your $#@!ing delusions that we're 'better' or 'different' from every other living organism.
    only my body is an animal...
    the rest of me is FAR above that!



    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein

    "for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. - Thomas Jefferson.

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by James Madison View Post
    Humans are animals. Get over your $#@!ing delusions that we're 'better' or 'different' from every other living organism.
    That seems like a very strange thing to say. Do you feed your pets, or do they feed you?
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by tobismom View Post
    That seems like a very strange thing to say. Do you feed your pets, or do they feed you?
    Domesticating animals for our use and providing for them is a testament to our intelligence, not our superiority.
    Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. -James Madison

  18. #16
    Who takes care of you? Seriously. Do the field mice fix your breakfast? Wash your clothes?
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi



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  20. #17
    This should be in the religion subforum.
    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  21. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by otherone View Post
    This should be in the religion subforum.
    Why? Nothing religious about the OP. I put it here because it pertains to mental health.

  22. #19
    None of it really matters. Humanity will eventually wipe itself out. And no one will be alive to care.

    "This is how the world ends...not with a bang but a whimper."
    Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. -James Madison

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Why? Nothing religious about the OP. I put it here because it pertains to mental health.
    I don't know why you have to come around here and trounce your religion about the herd mentality all over us constantly, why are you here??

    Just kidding.

    I think he's saying the OP quintessentially explains why religions are so widespread.
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
    "dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
    "You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
    "When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q

    "Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

    "Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by dannno View Post
    I don't know why you have to come around here and trounce your religion about the herd mentality all over us constantly, why are you here??

    Just kidding.
    I fancy myself a shepherd. I'm here looking for a herd, of course.


    I think he's saying the OP quintessentially explains why religions are so widespread.
    I see.



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