After listening to Hidden Brain Podcast, where they discussed the influence we have on others, and reading Enemies, topics of influence, biases and imposing one’s will were all discussed. Starting with The Influence You Have, the Milgram Experiment was addressed. During this experiment, Stanley Milgram theorized that Nazi’s during WWII were not all inherently evil and that peer pressure is the key to this mob mentality if you will. The podcast challenged how the experiment was thought about. Instead of considering the emotions of the volunteers who were responsible for shocking people for incorrect answers, they asked about the mentality of the person conducting the experiment and gave the the volunteer their roll initially. They have these voice actors do both dialogue and give their thoughts as well. You can hear the thoughts volunteer in charge of shocking get more and more defensive and anxious. On the other hand, the thoughts of the person empowering the volunteer to continue to be growing in anxiety as well. You can hear him say, “You don’t have to do this, you can leave.”
This way of thinking about the Milgram Experiment, comes up again in other experiments discussed on the Hidden Brain. These experiments include asking people to sign a petition, commit a white lie and even doing pranks. For the volunteers of the experiment, all of them undervalued their effect on others. Many of them thought it would take asking more people in order to reach their goals. The perspective was then switched on the random people being ask to sign a petition or participate in some other action. Essentially, many people have issue saying no, in the chance they feel bad for their actions or letting this person down. Both the person asking and the person being asked are in this vulnerable position.
The last experiment discussed was a lighter, revised version of the Milgram Experiment that occurred in the 70’s. In this rendition of the experiment, volunteers were simply asked to go out in public on a busy sidewalk and look up. Again, many people undervalued their effect on others. Pedestrians would walk by and look up at nothing. In my opinion, that’s due to the fear of missing out, being a bit nosey or wanting to be aware of what’s going on. The more volunteers present, the more pedestrians would stop. Those of the Hidden Brain Podcast summed up this argument beautifully by mentioning both the positives and negatives of this phenomena. They stated that this phenomena is what keeps people practicing social norms in society and what keeps mob mentality present.
Personally, I have experienced the two sides of the phenomena. I’ve changed as a person based on how others acted around me. I grew up in a very, very loud and outspoken family, who also had issues truly saying how they feel. I grew up with a lot of these same traits. I’m very loud and I’m extroverted; although, I’m an open book. Once in society, I’ve learned to control my loudness and my high levels of energy due to the fact I didn’t want to be a nuisance, weird or annoying. Now, that I’ve surrounded myself with those who can at the least tolerate my high energy and loudness, I’ve become more comfortable in my skin.
I’ve also been the cause of phenomena with both my family and my friends. There’s plenty of examples where I’ve influenced how those around me think and act. Due to the fact that I’m rather outspoken about my feelings and thoughts, people have been comfortable sharing personal information with me after shortly knowing me. To me it’s truly astonishing and I don’t take it for granted but it worries me. This may sound silly but what if I become this vindictive person, or have this evil twin or someone tries to probe my brain for secrets. On a serious note, due to the fact I don’t burden myself with keeping my life so private and secret, people can see my insecurities and how I work around it. Many people respect that and then look at me to help them get through things. I noticed that I’m willing to help people whenever but I used to struggle with asking for help and saying no to people when I can’t help. I’ve worked on this but now listening to the podcast and reading Enemies, I understand that everyone struggles with the same things to an extent. Even the most confident or shy, good or evil. The line between the two is often more thin than others.
I like how you express, both times another person has influenced you with their words and a time you did the same. I find it interesting however how you started off with how someone else’s words impacted you first. I also find it interesting too, how most of the other students who did the blog post only wrote about how other people’s words influenced them. I think the reason why most of us only wrote about how others’ words impacted us was because the very thing the narrator was speaking about in his podcast. Most of us probably found it hard to recall a time our words impacted another person’s life immensely because we often underestimate our word’s impact on other people’s lives.