Chapter 13 focuses on social psychology. Lilienfeld opens the chapter with the story of Orson Welles famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast that sent our nation into a frenzy. This is an intriguing bit of history to begin the chapter because it is a great example of the way our species can be so easily deceived by such comically false information delivered through a socially accepted medium.
Throughout the chapter the author talks of the many different ways in which an individuals' behavior is influenced by the social setting in which they are placed. I found the section on social facilitation interesting because both humans and cockroaches completed a race faster when they were watched by a group of their peers. Another section that caught my attention were the Asch Studies on conformity. These studies showed that when the confederates of a group gave the wrong answer to a question the participant is likely to conform to the answers of the confederates even if they think the answer is wrong. This study intrigued me because as a student I have responded the same way when given a question in a group setting. It is scary to think how different social settings can have such a big impact on the way we choose to act and I am excited to learn more about the reasons behind these phenomena.
Writing 1, Section 4
So often people give in to liking or disliking what everybody else likes, and when they rebel against it they do it in numbers as well. There seems to be this overwhelming desire to be just like everybody else and be accepted, which in many ways is understandable, after all, we are social creatures. However, at what point does our actions stop being our own and take on the identity of some mass nameless figure known as society? When people become so quick to collaborate and join a certain cause, it becomes difficult to determine what people truly believe and what the situation really is.