Peer Pressure Doesn’t End at High School Graduation

In 1969 Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo left 2 identical 1959 Oldsmobiles on the street in two very different neighborhoods. Neither car had license plates.

One in the affluent Palo Alto, California neighborhood, where Stanford is located.

The other one in the Bronx. Right near the New York University campus. A much poorer neighborhood.

He wanted to see what would happen to the cars.

Vandals attacked the car in the Bronx almost immediately. Within 24 hours the only thing left on the car was the frame.

Meanwhile, in Palo Alto, the car stayed untouched for over a week. People walked past it. Someone even closed the hood (he had left it slightly open on both cars) when it rained. Another person helped direct traffic around it.

Zimbardo then tried something to see what would happen. In the middle of the day, he took a sledgehammer and started smashing the car in Palo Alto.

Within hours the Palo Alto car was attacked and vandalized. Everything was stripped.

When my daughter was young, she complained that nobody wanted to play what she wanted to play. All her friends wanted to do something else.

I told her to just play what she wanted by herself, and do it in sight of all her friends.

“Make sure you look like you’re having a great time playing on your own”, I told her.

Soon her friends came over to see what she was doing. Then they all joined in.

Very often people follow the crowd when they see everyone doing the same thing. Regardless of their age. If everyone else is doing something, that’s what we should do. The young and the elderly seem especially vulnerable to this.

Until someone does something different. When people see someone doing something different, it’s like they now have permission to try something else.

Healthcare is a good example.

We have mainstream medicine. Very smart-sounding people make pronouncements from on-high about various studies. Everyone just follows along. Even if they don’t seem to receive much benefit from doing the popular thing.

Then someone tries something different. And word gets out.

All of sudden other people deviate from the crowd as well. That’s why you see so much suppression of alternative voices these days. People stand to benefit from the crowd moving in a certain way. Especially financially.

Here’s what i’m trying to tell you. You may feel like you can’t speak up when your mother is in the hospital, even if you feel in your gut what they are doing is wrong.

Do it anyway. You might not just be helping your mother. The person in the bed next to your mother may be afraid to say anything as well. If they hear you speak up, they may find the courage to speak up themselves.

The world needs more people who change the direction of crowds. It can set off quite a chain reaction. Will you be the one to do it?