

Humans Naturally Follow Crowd Behavior - 2510c39011c5
http://online.wsj.com/articles/humans-naturally-follow-crowd-behavior-1410543908

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Gustomaximus
Did I miss something? I didn't find this article that insightful in terms of
linking the headline to the example. From the article;

"Sure In one study, a few ringers simply joined the crowd and stared up at a
spot in the sky for 60 seconds. Then the researchers recorded and analyzed the
movements of the people around them. The scientists found that within seconds
hundreds of people coordinated their attention in a highly systematic way.
People consistently stopped to look toward exactly the same spot as the
ringers."

This hardly says 'Humans naturally follow crowd behavior". It more says humans
investigate usual behavior. Of course if people start looking up around a
person will wonder want is going on, as this is unusual. The same as you would
look at a person doing anything unusual like dancing/stripping in a crowd etc.
The difference with people all looking up is you have to mimic them to
investigate their unusual behavior. I hardly think if these ringers started
hoping on one foot that hundreds of people around them would to. The crowd
would largely look at them, not follow them.

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sp332
Wouldn't that be the opposite of crowd behavior? If most people are not
looking up, and only a few people are looking up, then looking up is _not_
following the crowd.

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bennesvig
One of the deepest desires people have is to belong to a group. For the vast
majority of history, isolation from a group meant death. Therefor people have
a natural instinct to follow the behavior of a group even if it's something
they wouldn't do on their own (like riot after their sports team wins/loses).
Seeing someone do something also gives people the feeling of approval, whether
valid or not.

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FallFastForFun
Every so often, this is observation is re-observed as if its a new revelation.

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programmer_dude
Just following the crowd.

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2510c39011c5
For those behind the WSJ paywall, you could search the article title in google
and follow the result link from there. That would will give you a limited
trial for their locked content...

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Gustomaximus
Search link here: [http://bit.ly/1oNQolR](http://bit.ly/1oNQolR)

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tantalor
This has to do with a lot more than crowd conformance. All the examples cited
reduce to quickly reacting to faces, which governs many other behaviors, like
fight/flight survival instincts, emotions, negotiation, socialization, etc.

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tantalor
> a few ringers simply joined the crowd

That isn't the right word... a better word is "confederate".

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hawleyal
Duh

