Brain Games Conformity Waiting Room — Transcript

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1. 0:00stop pay attention take a look at this
2. 0:06crowded waiting room these people may
3. 0:08appear to be waiting for the eye doctor
4. 0:09but they're actually waiting for the
5. 0:11first test subject in our hidden camera
6. 0:13experiment and here she is right on time
7. 0:16for her 12 o'clock appointment this
8. 0:22woman thinks she's here for a free eye
9. 0:24exam have you been here before no it's
10. 0:26my first time what she doesn't know is
11. 0:28that everyone else in this room is
12. 0:30working for us today we're running an
13. 0:34experiment on social conformity and the
14. 0:36test starts now
15. 0:42did you hear that these people sure did
16. 0:55it doesn't take long for our test
17. 0:58subject to notice a pattern beep means
18. 1:00stand up but why and if you were in her
19. 1:03shoes what would you do the next time
20. 1:06the tone sounds while you might think
21. 1:08you make your decisions all on your own
22. 1:10when it comes to peer pressure
23. 1:14all too often your brain is just
24. 1:17following the crowd
25. 1:20it's all around you everyday an
26. 1:22invisible force you're probably not even
27. 1:25aware of it affects what you do how you
28. 1:28think and who you are it's called social
29. 1:31conformity or peer pressure and while it
30. 1:34might not sound like a good thing it's
31. 1:36actually not so bad the truth is your
32. 1:38brain craves synchronicity and takes
33. 1:40comfort in the ease and efficiency of
34. 1:42just going with the flow and whether
35. 1:44it's simply knowing what to wear in the
36. 1:46morning supporting your team at the big
37. 1:47game or even marching off to war we're
38. 1:50all programs to be part of the group and
39. 1:52that's because your brain knows that
40. 1:55there's power in numbers we set up a
41. 1:57hidden camera experiment to see if this
42. 1:59woman would stand up at the sound of
43. 2:01this tone simply because everyone else
44. 2:04is you might be thinking you'd never go
45. 2:07along with this or would you
46. 2:11[Music]
47. 2:17after just three beeps and without
48. 2:20knowing why she's doing it
49. 2:21this woman is now conforming perfectly
50. 2:24to the group but what happens if we take
51. 2:30the group away
52. 2:33Elaine please
53. 2:45[Music]
54. 2:55okay now she's alone the crowd is gone
55. 2:58and nobody is watching her except our
56. 3:01hidden cameras what do you think she'll
57. 3:03do
58. 3:08she's now conforming to the rules of the
59. 3:10group without them even being there now
60. 3:14watch what happens when we introduce
61. 3:16another outsider who doesn't know the
62. 3:18rules have a seat and they'll be out in
63. 3:21just a couple minutes thanks so much
64. 3:45think she'll teach the new guy what to
65. 3:48do
66. 3:53[Applause]
67. 3:55[Music]
68. 3:57[Applause]
69. 4:01we kept the cameras rolling as more
70. 4:04unsuspecting patients arrived
71. 4:19and slowly but surely what began is a
72. 4:25random rule for this woman has now
73. 4:27become the social norm for everyone in
74. 4:30this waiting room here to explain what's
75. 4:33going on in their brains is Jonah Berger
76. 4:35of the University of Pennsylvania this
77. 4:38sort of internalized form of her
78. 4:39behavior is part of what we call social
79. 4:41learning starting at a very early age
80. 4:43when we see members of our group perform
81. 4:45a task our brains literally reward us
82. 4:47for following in their footsteps when I
83. 4:48saw everybody stand up I felt like I
84. 4:51needed to join them otherwise I'm like
85. 4:54excluded once I decided to go with it
86. 4:58then I felt much more comfortable
87. 5:03conformity is how we become socialized
88. 5:05but it can also cause us to develop bad
89. 5:07habits or repeat past wrongs and it's
90. 5:10why even this rebel who wasn't standing
91. 5:12for any of this nonsense eventually
92. 5:18joined the ranks
93. 5:22and the only thing more shocking than
94. 5:24seeing how easily conformity affects the
95. 5:26way you act is that similar forces are
96. 5:31subconsciously shaping the way you think
97. 5:33right now