The podcast argues that the impact we have on others is often greater than we give it credit for. For example, it mentions the Milgram experiment, where it demonstrates that ordinary people can inflict extraordinary harm on other human beings simply by following the instructions of the authority and the task and not its consequences. Yale University’s students said that no more than 3% of the participants would give the maximum impact. The reality was that 65% of the participants in the Milgram study delivered the maximum shock. And of the 40 participants in the study, 26 gave the maximum shocks while 14 stopped before reaching the highest levels. It is important to note that many of them felt very agitated, distressed, and angry with the experimenter. However, they continued with the orders to the end. It is important to mention that all this happened because people consider that they are part of a hierarchical structure and believe that the authorities are responsible for their actions and use the orders of the authorities as a guide for correct action. These experiments offer a powerful and disturbing insight into the power of authority and obedience. But also, there is the egocentric bias, which makes us act in helpful ways to others. As Vedantam mention before: “When we interact with others, we are often intensely focused on how we feel (…). As a result, we are often blind to the effect we have on others”. She come up with an experiment as well, were participants asked people if they can you just sign a sheet implying that they gave the pitch, but they did not because they are not feeling like doing it. And, again, most people ended up signing it, even though our participants thought that most people would say no.

In my opinion, I believe that we underestimate the influence that we have over other people. Humans are social beings. The presence of other people and their influence has marked the evolution of the human being. We need support and cooperation to survive. That is why we have always lived in groups. Also, today our survival, our success, and our happiness depend more on how we relate to other people. That is what happened with the experiment where they asked people to vandalize the books. Even though they were uncomfortable with vandalizing the book, they still did it. As Bohns said in the podcast about the pressure that we exert on other people: “… we underestimate the extent to which asking them for something puts them in an awkward position because now they have to say no, and that’s just a really hard thing for people to do”. We influence the people we interact with, but not all have the same results: some are positive, and some have negative effects.

This was not a huge influence, but it made me think and reflect on my actions. One time I asked my coworker to bring me a cup of water in a rude way, but it was joking. This is what I though; he would just say “no”, easy right? But I did not think that he would actually serve me a cup because we barely talk and know each other, I thought he would decline my request, but he ended up giving me a cold cup of water. I think it was really difficult for him to deny my request because people like to do favors and help each others and it is uncomfortable to say no. So, it made me think about what I should say and on how my actions affects other people, specially to the ones I am not very familiar with. By being more aware of the impact that our actions have on others and on the environment that we create, we can work on mechanisms that allow us to properly control and manage what we want to feel and make others feel.