How to control a herd of humans PDF Print E-mail
Society
Written by David Robson   

Research shows that when people perform a particular act in a group, they develop group attachment. And, most of the people prefer their ideas or thoughts to be in consonance with their group. So, if you want people to act in a particular way, make them act in a group. Someone rightly said, man is a social animal.

HITLER and Mussolini both had the ability to
bend millions of people to their fascist will. Now,
evidence from psychology and neurology is
emerging to explain how tactics like organised
marching and propaganda can work to exert
mass mind control.

Scott Wiltermuth of Stanford University in
California and colleagues have found that
activities performed in unison, such as marching
or dancing, increase loyalty to the group.
“It makes us feel as though we are part of a larger
entity, so we see the group's welfare as being
as important as our own," he says.

Wiltermuth's team separated 96 people into four groups who performed these tasks together--listening
to a song while silently mouthing the words, singing along, singing and dancing, or listening to different
versions of the song so that they sang and danced out of sync. In a later game, when asked to decide
whether to stick with the group or strive for personal gain, those in the non-synchronised group behaved
less loyally than the rest (Psychological Science, vol 20, p 1).

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville thinks this research helps
explain why fascist leaders, amongst others, use organised marching and chanting to whip crowds into a
frenzy of devotion to their cause, though these tactics can be used just as well for peace, he stresses.
Community dances and group singing can ease local tension, for example - a theory he plans to test
experimentally.

Meanwhile, the powerful unifying effects of propaganda images are being explored by Charles Seger at
Indiana University at Bloomington. His team primed students with pictures of their university - college
sweatshirts or the buildings themselves - then asked how highly they scored on different emotions, such
as pride or happiness. The primed students gave a strikingly similar emotional profile, in contrast with
non-primed students.

Interest in the idea of a herd mentality has been renewed by work into mirror neurons - cells that fire
when we perform an action or watch someone perform a similar action. It suggests that our brains are
geared to mimic our peers. "We are set up for 'auto-copy'," says Haidt.
Interest in the idea of a herd mentality has been renewed by research into mirror
Neurons;Neurological evidence seems to back this idea.

Vasily Klucharev, at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, found that the brain releases more of the reward chemical dopamine when we fall in line with the group consensus. His team asked 24 women to rate more than 200 women for attractiveness. If a participant discovered their ratings did not tally with that of the others, they tended to readjust their scores. When a woman realised her differing
opinion, fMRI scans revealed that her brain generated what the team dubbed an "error signal". This has
a conditioning effect, says Klucharev: it’s how we learn to follow the crowd.