Sheep Mentality
Sheep Mentality a.k.a. Herd Mentality: A behavior in human beings where they flock like sheep subconsciously following a minority of individuals. It describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors (whether offline or online) on a primarily emotional, rather than rational, basis.
Professor Jens Krause and his Ph.D. student John Dyer at the University of Leeds conducted a series of experiments to study this behavior. Professor Krause said, “We’ve all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd, but what’s interesting about this research is that our participants ended up making a consensus decision despite the fact that they weren’t allowed to talk or gesture to one another. In most cases, the participants didn’t realize they were being led by others.” The research findings show that as the number of people in a crowd increases, the number of informed individuals decreases. In large crowds of 200 or more, five percent of the group is enough to influence the direction in which it travels.
On a lighter (and closer to home) note, have you observed the traffic discipline in your area? One driver jumps the traffic lights, or creates a non-existent driving lane for himself or herself, and then what happens? Ten more drivers follow him or her. After that five more follow and make that choice all flocking like sheep.
On a more reflective note, take a moment to look at your life and see where you are being a sheep. Notice the areas where you are not true to yourself, where you are not exploring your potential, where you are not standing out, and where you are living a stereotype life. Next, what are you going to do about it? Take a deep breath in and one tiny step forward.
