The thread I seem to be following today concerns how we are influenced by social proof and how illogical we are as a species.
A friend mentioned that her annual local stream cleanup happened yesterday, and the woman who organized it stacked all of the trash up at an intersection and made two large billboards that said, “(This road) is not your dumpster. Stop throwing your trash here.”
I immediately recalled the section on Social Proof from Influence that talked about this very thing and how her sign will not dissuade people from littering, but rather, just the opposite.
Telling people this area is a dumping ground for litter normalizes it and permits them to do the same. Because of her sign stunt, this area is likely to see a drastic increase in the amount of litter at next year’s annual clean-up.
Along that same thread, I was reading in The Tipping Point about how the anti-smoking campaign in the 1980s essentially had the same effect—it increased teen smoking dramatically rather than the decrease they were hoping for.
Both Gladwell and Cialdini talk about the catchiness of suicide after a highly publicized suicide event—they both feel there is some kind of social proof happening that then permits others to end their lives. The research behind this is fascinating (sad, but fascinating).
The logic thread (or illogic) I am following today started with a conversation Damien and I had about naming dogs (or pets in general) and expecting them to understand the arbitrary names we give them.
He is a debater, so I happily engaged him in this debate since it has been a lifelong open loop for him.
After much intense discussion, I believe I was able to close the loop for him by explaining that humans tend not to approach things logically—even Kahneman points out that “the logical consistency of human preferences is a hopeless mirage.” And that we as a species approach things emotionally with us at the center, which puts blinders on us and keeps us from opening our minds to see that not only does each person perceive the world differently, but animals perceive it in ways we can’t even begin to understand.
There is a documentary on Netflix (I believe it is Life in Color with David Attenborough) and it goes into such amazing detail about how different animals perceive the world - and how it is so vastly different than how we perceive it. Even one human to another can experience the same thing in different ways, yet we illogically believe that everyone experiences things the same way we do.
Share your experiences and insights in the comments below!