Herd mentality

Have you ever heard a mother say, “Why are you not thinking? If your friends tell you to jump off the building, would you do that?”

It is a rhetorical question demanding an answer: “Of course not”, and in most cases, the child will not respond. You might even consider the question as stupid and dumb. Who would succumb to such insanity as jumping off a building? That is totally insane because you and I are intelligent, rational, strong, and independent free-thinkers who would not just do things people tell us to. But, are we really that type of people?

The question now is this. What if your friends are not jumping off the building, but they are all investing in crypto-currency, joining the many who are taking non-stop selfies, building their “personal brand,” wanting to become the next YouTube Stars with plans to ditch their day jobs? Or perhaps, let me bring all of us closer to home. What if everybody will rush to the nearest shop to buy the latest model of the smartphone most of your friends are now raving about? Or maybe something as simple as watching that “Crazy Rich Asians” movie that everyone in your group want to see?

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is very common a phenomenon that hits our young people, and the next term I would like to introduce cuts across all ages group. This is called “herd mentality”. We are all susceptible to this, believe me.

In 2008, professor Jens Krause and Dr. John Dyer of Leeds University conducted an experiment where groups subjects were told to walk in a random path inside a big hall while not communicating with the other subjects. However, the researchers told a few of the subjects exactly where they should walk. Guess what happened? They discovered that the people who were told exactly where to walk started being followed by the subjects who were walking “randomly”.  Professor Krause says: “We’ve all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd. But, what’s interesting about this research is that our participants ended up making a consensus decision despite the fact that they weren’t allowed to talk or gesture to one another. In most cases, the participants didn’t realize that they were being led by others. In the end, they found that it took just five percent of people walking confidently to influence 95 percent of the other walkers to follow them.

When it comes to business, I see the herd mentality operating constantly.

For example, many executives keep on fighting for the same customers from the competition. They never take the time and energy to capture a new one.

Perhaps, they have not realized that their old customers are precisely what they are—getting old. The new ones do not even like the product.

They all buy the same software. They hear that their competitors have it, so they need to buy one too, not realizing that the product may not be appropriate for their use or that they are paying too much for something they will never get around to using anyway. Investors all rush to buy a specific stock because it is supposed to be “hot”.

I see herd mentality operating in many businesses. This is a behavior wherein people act the same way or adopt similar behaviors as many around them or in their industry, often ignoring their own feelings in the process. Think of a sheep blindly following the flock no matter where they go, just because that’s what the herd is doing.

This happens when there is a shortage of due diligence, consulting the right people for advice and wanting to “play it safe” and be in the game since the competition is doing it anyway.

I have always wondered about this: Why would good people do wrong things and follow what the majority do even though they know that not speaking out and joining the system is wrong?

“Everybody’s doing it anyway”. Would that be a legit reason to do wrong things?

This is why there is a need to develop critical thinking skills. This skill encompasses sustained inquiry: To question things before doing things, to ask “why”, and to determine the purpose for doing so. Another crucial skill is to develop effective communication skills, so that the inquiry and the argument against herd mentality can be presented with courtesy and respect. Lastly, one must also have the ability to argue intelligently and present the case with creativity and courtesy.

Critical thinking and effective communications are now essential skills I emphasize in all of my leadership talks and trainings, because the enablement of these skills would equip the thinking person to develop the courage to challenge herd mentality. For after all, I therefore conclude that the opposite of courage is not cowardice. It is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

(Experience two inspiring days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly- acclaimed Level Up Leadership seminar-workshop on Sept. 18 and 19 at Makati Diamond Residences near Greenbelt 1. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)