For my first blog of the semester I decided to choose Chapter 13 due to the interest I have in social psychology. It has always interested me greatly how we train our mind to follow the social norm and Chapter 13 covered my interests in depth. Throughout the chapter the author referred to the conformity we frequently have in our everyday life, along with attitudes and their origins, and concluded with stereotypes. As I read this it continued to intrigue me how much as human beings we stick to what you "should do." With a little research I found a study a group put together showing how humans follow what they see. The experiment was to place a picture of a male on one door at the entrance and a picture of a female on the other (much like a bathroom door). Just as you may, or may not have expected, the students walking through the doors followed the segregated doors to the point where a male and female friend would split to walk through the correct doors. This personally blew my mind to see how students follow the social norm even if it brings inconvenience.
The video of the experiment is listed here in case of URL issues below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a71h6LZKXTc
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