To jump on the bandwagon, this was a test we did at KomVux (a sort-of second chance school for adults who opted out of or flunked after finishing compulsory school) when I attended:
The teacher, a psychologist combining his research with teaching, randomised the class into groups of six. Each group sat at a round table, and each person in…
To jump on the bandwagon, this was a test we did at KomVux (a sort-of second chance school for adults who opted out of or flunked after finishing compulsory school) when I attended:
The teacher, a psychologist combining his research with teaching, randomised the class into groups of six. Each group sat at a round table, and each person in each group were given an envelope.
Each envelope was marked with a different colour and contained laminated coloured cardboard in various shapes. The object which he explained before giving the go ahead, was for each person and group to make a rectangle in the colour of everyone's respective envelope, while he timed the entire thing.
No one was to speak, use sign language, written notes et c - no communication basically. No one was allowed to give away a piece to anyone else unless they got a piece in return. No stealing some else's piece even if it is your colour.
Average time to completion was, he said close to ten minutes.
Upon opening the envelope, everyone at my table looked at one another as if telepathic and empited our envelopes in the middle of the table so everyone could pick out their pieces. 13 seconds.
When my group was excused, we saw on our way out two women seated across from eachother at one of the tables, each one lacking the piece the other one held and neither one willing to be the first to offer it.
For these women, and for 98.5%+ of test subjects according to the psychologist, the very ownership and control of the thing was apparently worth much more - infinitely more - than the actual thing itself.
Not exactly conformity, but in the same general area.
While I'd certainly like to claim that it was my idea to simply pour the pieces out into the middle, that's not true. It really was as if the same realisation struck all of us at the same time: to empty the entire load in the middle of the table and only take what you need is not against the rules.
I'd love to be able to do a similar study with groups of people sorted by how they identify politically.
That seems completely baffling to me. It's obvious (to me at least) that a piece that isn't my color is completely worthless to me........
I wonder if we could figure out what breaks down these barriers in some people. I've recently been pondering about sports and how they emphasize teamwork and cooperation, maybe that's a factor?
I have no idea. We were about 50/50 split men and women, age 25-50, all swedish except for one or two people from southern Europe, and had nothing to do with eachother except going to KomVux and taking the Psychology ABC-levels course. You picked your own courses as needed, so there weren't any classes the way it is in compulsory school.
While it would certainly be interesting to try and find the unknown factor, if it exists, once found it can be countermanded even more efficiently.
To jump on the bandwagon, this was a test we did at KomVux (a sort-of second chance school for adults who opted out of or flunked after finishing compulsory school) when I attended:
The teacher, a psychologist combining his research with teaching, randomised the class into groups of six. Each group sat at a round table, and each person in each group were given an envelope.
Each envelope was marked with a different colour and contained laminated coloured cardboard in various shapes. The object which he explained before giving the go ahead, was for each person and group to make a rectangle in the colour of everyone's respective envelope, while he timed the entire thing.
No one was to speak, use sign language, written notes et c - no communication basically. No one was allowed to give away a piece to anyone else unless they got a piece in return. No stealing some else's piece even if it is your colour.
Average time to completion was, he said close to ten minutes.
Upon opening the envelope, everyone at my table looked at one another as if telepathic and empited our envelopes in the middle of the table so everyone could pick out their pieces. 13 seconds.
When my group was excused, we saw on our way out two women seated across from eachother at one of the tables, each one lacking the piece the other one held and neither one willing to be the first to offer it.
For these women, and for 98.5%+ of test subjects according to the psychologist, the very ownership and control of the thing was apparently worth much more - infinitely more - than the actual thing itself.
Not exactly conformity, but in the same general area.
While I'd certainly like to claim that it was my idea to simply pour the pieces out into the middle, that's not true. It really was as if the same realisation struck all of us at the same time: to empty the entire load in the middle of the table and only take what you need is not against the rules.
I'd love to be able to do a similar study with groups of people sorted by how they identify politically.
That seems completely baffling to me. It's obvious (to me at least) that a piece that isn't my color is completely worthless to me........
I wonder if we could figure out what breaks down these barriers in some people. I've recently been pondering about sports and how they emphasize teamwork and cooperation, maybe that's a factor?
I have no idea. We were about 50/50 split men and women, age 25-50, all swedish except for one or two people from southern Europe, and had nothing to do with eachother except going to KomVux and taking the Psychology ABC-levels course. You picked your own courses as needed, so there weren't any classes the way it is in compulsory school.
While it would certainly be interesting to try and find the unknown factor, if it exists, once found it can be countermanded even more efficiently.