How does the herd instinct work and why is it difficult to resist?

Herd mentality is a concept used in psychology and other social disciplines, but it is not a scientific term, but rather a figurative analogue for a brief description of a rather voluminous concept. Briefly, it can be described as motivating one’s own actions solely because the majority of a social group of individuals does so (everyone skipped class or offended the weak, shouted at a match or got married this year, boycotted a certain person or defended the party’s position).

The herd feeling in people differs from the same mechanism in the animal world, where the behavior of a large mass of representatives of one species is regulated not by personal preferences and necessity, but by biological laws. This is a useful evolutionary acquisition of the animal world, allowing the preservation of the population. For example, when one individual begins to run away, it is much more effective for everyone else to run away than to wait for immediate danger to see for themselves. In the context of human behavior, it rather implies an inability to react individually, obeying the laws of the crowd and mass behavior.

The herd feeling or herd instinct is subject to certain biological characteristics of the human psyche, for example, the establishment of certain rhythms and cycles - this is how applause in the crowd, the menstrual periods of women in the same territory, and even the time of wakefulness and hunger are synchronized. Accordingly, using this expression implies an initial attitude towards manifestations of human behavior as lower, animal, biologically determined forms.

Not all people gathered in one place behave like a herd - only the presence of intellectual control over their own behavior is the determining factor. Consequently, the fewer intellectually informed decisions that take into account individual needs, the higher the likelihood of instinctive behavior at the animal level.

What is the herd feeling among people?

Herd mentality should be understood as human behavior that is completely subordinate to society or a separate group of such society. In this case, a person does not stand out from society in any way; he loses his individual appearance. In other words, when an individual refuses to defend his opinion, forgets about his desires and interests for the sake of society, that is, he follows the majority.

The desire to be like everyone else has been studied for many decades. Scientists and thinkers express the following opinions regarding the phenomenon:

• Friedrich Nietzsche believed that such behavior is the result of the distrust and negativism of mediocre individuals towards people who are different from them. It is easier for these ordinary individuals to act together; they cannot do it alone.
• V. Trotter argued that instinct is the desire to become part of society or a small part of it. At the same time, the behavior of the leader of this society is duplicated.
• P.A. Kropotkin attributes the herd feeling, like many other feelings, to character traits that are characteristic of each member of society.

One of the British universities proposed a theory, the essence of which is that 5% of the leaders on the planet are enough to control 95% of the remaining inhabitants. The rest of the masses will look at the leaders and do the same.

Hysterical anesthesia

By its nature it will be a functional disorder, which makes itself felt after mental trauma. It is most typical for patients with demonstrative character traits.

Symptoms of sensory disturbance here are:

• The patient is absolutely sure that he has completely stopped feeling the world around him.
• Possible loss of hearing or vision.
• There is a loss of tactile and pain sensitivity.
• Typical areas of cutaneous innervation will not always correspond to areas of cutaneous anesthesia.
• The presence of unconditioned reflexes. A striking example is the “gaze tracking” reflex. Here vision is preserved, but the gaze is fixed on some object and does not move as the patient’s head turns.
• The reaction to cold may persist in the absence of pain sensitivity as such.
• The emergence of pathologically perverted, atypical sensations.

Anesthesia can persist for quite a long time in hysterical neuroses.

Types of herd instinct

The feeling of herd manifests itself in all areas of life. Among them, special attention should be paid to 5, since it is in these areas that it is easier to control the population and influence the will of the people.

Religious

The behavior and actions of many people are determined by the religion they have chosen. Church regulations dictate how to behave, determine what is good and what is bad. If you look at the phenomenon from both sides, it turns out that a person learns correct behavior, he has a moral core, he knows what to strive for. But in addition to the positive impact, one should not exclude the negative:

• After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a large number of sects appeared. People were confused, many lost the meaning of life and did not understand what was happening to the country, what to do and how to live further. And then a leader and a group of people appear, ready to provide support, advise, tell and teach. That is, to again give that spiritual, moral core that united the entire USSR. It would seem that what’s wrong with this, but professional psychologists and speakers with their speeches and appeals did not help people, but ruined their lives, destroyed the personalities of adequate people, turning them into a herd.
• Many such leaders formed settlements of citizens united by common religious preferences. Some live in monasteries. But this does not raise any questions or feelings of surprise in anyone. Believers do not harm anyone and devote their lives to prayer and work.
• A gang of murderers, the Manson Family community, operated in America. The herd instinct among people, members of the sect, constantly stimulated by the leader, pushed them to commit criminal acts.

Sexual

Main manifestations on the issues:

• childbirth;
• jealousy;
• monogamy.

Many girls selflessly try to become a mother, and if they do not succeed due to various circumstances, then this greatly worries them and does not allow them to live in peace. In society, such desperate women are treated with caution, since the prevailing part of the population considers leaving offspring as their main responsibility.

Psychologists associate the appearance of fear in the absence of children in the family with a person’s strong association of himself with the animal world. If the female cannot give birth, then she becomes an outcast. So it is in the human world.

Jealousy, according to many, is a manifestation of the feeling of love. Professionals believe that this is just a fear of lowering one’s position in the herd hierarchy, and not a desire to be close to a partner all his life.

The desire to have one partner, according to researchers, is associated with fear of competition. Scientists say that in a society with a predominant herd mentality there is no place for sexual freedom. Therefore, a person himself is responsible for the decision to be or not to be monogamous.

Political

There are 4 types of manifestation of instinct in politics:

1. Patriotism. It is a good feeling that has helped many times in the fight against invaders. However, sometimes love for the Fatherland develops into fanaticism.
2. Nationalism. There are civil, ethnic and cultural. An aggressive attitude towards representatives of another nationality, state, or some particular community (emo, goths) turns into extremism.
3. Racism. Some people deny the rights of others based on race. And often they infringe not only the interests of other representatives, but can even kill them.
4. Religious hostility. Manifests itself in intolerance towards supporters of other faiths. With the active actions of the manipulator, the crowd can do a lot on the basis of religious disagreements.

If the feeling of patriotism is manifested only by love for the Motherland, then only a positive influence is observed. According to historical experience, other forms were manifested by wars and conflicts.

Advertising

Advertising is a powerful marketing ploy, the essence of which is to influence people’s consciousness (pushing them with completely unnecessary goods). Professional psychologists in the field of sales have long discovered that the herd instinct allows a hundredfold increase in the sale of goods and services.

Promotional videos have a strong impact on the human psyche. Frail children's minds are especially susceptible to this influence. You can often see a picture of a child in a store demanding from his parents exactly the toy that recently appeared on TV and was already purchased for a classmate.

Adults are also affected. This manifests itself in the desire to buy branded items, purchase an iPhone, or use cosmetics from a well-known Swiss company. People think that something is really worthwhile because others buy it.

Parliamentarians also resort to influencing the herd mentality before an election campaign. Presenting themselves as a leader, promising mountains of gold, they call on like-minded people to join.

In art

It is a common belief that if a person does not attend art exhibitions, does not admire a recent play in the theater, and generally does not like classical music, then he is not an esthete. The “highly cultured” community will not accept such people into its ranks and will consider them ignorant.

The crowd does not want to accept that it is a personal matter for everyone - what to love, what music to listen to, what to wear.

Principles of classification of sensations

The basis of the classification

Classification by location and function of receptors

So, one of the classifications of sensations in psychology is based on the location of the receptors and the nature of the reflection of the image they form:

1. Interoceptive. Their receptors are located in the internal organs and tissues of the body and directly reflect their condition. Under normal conditions, the information transmitted by such receptors is beyond the lower threshold of sensitivity. This is a kind of first-class equipped chemical laboratory: interoceptors collect and transmit information to the brain about the presence or absence of both harmful and beneficial substances, and determine the chemical composition of body fluids. In addition, it is the interoceptors that notify the brain about changes in body temperature or pressure. In a critical situation, when malfunctions occur in the functioning of internal organs due to illness or some external reason, pain occurs.
2. Proprioceptive, the essence of which is the creation and subsequent transmission to the brain of an image about the position of the body in space and the movement it makes. This is done with the help of receptors located in ligaments and muscles.
3. Exteroceptive sensations are focused on the perception and reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of the external environment. Their receptors are located on the surface of the body and are divided into contact and distant. As the name itself suggests, for the functioning of contact receptors, direct exposure to the stimulus (touch, taste) is necessary. Distant receptors receive information from a distant object and form sound, visual and olfactory images.

Of course, all of the above types of receptors and the images they create do not exist in isolation from each other. Often, to obtain one sensation, a complex of information collected by exteroceptors and interoceptors is required. For example, the idea of ​​the position of the body in space is not only created with the participation of proprioceptors, but is also inevitably supplemented by a visual image.

Classification by sense organs

Tactile sensations (touch) can be considered the leader in the amount of information received and transmitted. This occurs due to the fact that the sense of touch involves both types of exteroceptors (located over the entire area of ​​the skin) and, thus, can record both touch and temperature.

The sense of smell provides a person with information about smells that played a huge role in the life of animals in prehistoric eras. The enormous importance of smell is evidenced by the fact that the receptors that perceive odors are located on the protruding part of the body, and information about them is transmitted to the brain along the shortest and most direct path.

Taste sensations

Visual

Visual sensations are caused by electromagnetic waves of a certain length. The human eye perceives only part of the spectrum: from red to violet. And although infrared and ultraviolet radiation have a significant impact on humans, this can only be known by the consequences. In the complex of visual sensations we can distinguish:

• achromatic (transition from absolute darkness to light through shades of gray);
• chromatic (reflect all the colors of the gamut with their shades);

Psychology notes that different colors and their combinations can have different emotional effects on a person. This fact is used in various tests (for example, the Luscher test).

Auditory

Auditory sensations are close in nature to visual ones: they are also caused by waves of a certain range. Infra- and ultrasound remain beyond audibility. Sound is determined by timbre (in other words, the color of the sound), duration, height (depending on the frequency of wave oscillations) and volume (determined by the period of wave oscillation). There are three types of sound sensations: noise, speech and music.

Pros and cons of the herd instinct

The feeling of herdism allows you to maintain order in society. Thanks to instinct, moral restrictions operate and there are life values. However, instinct must be used in moderation and carefully.

Turning off your thinking and unconditionally submitting to the majority can play a bad role. Leaders of sects and communities no more often lack good motives. Leaders usually act out of self-interest. After beautiful speeches, calls for equality and brotherhood, the crowd goes to destroy and kill.

Some examples from life

Each of us has encountered situations when the environment had one influence or another on him.

For example, I remember how, when I was at school, it became fashionable to smoke cigarettes. Almost all of my classmates started smoking at the same time.

They went out during breaks, before school, after school, at any free time, and smoked behind the garages. They chewed the whole thing with gum, hid from teachers, etc. It was considered very fashionable.

Moreover, the more people started smoking, the more non-smokers subsequently followed their example.

Fortunately, I fell into good company as a child and I really didn’t like the smell of cigarettes (and still don’t like it). I have never tried smoking cigarettes in my life. Now I’m very glad that I didn’t once poison my body with this crap just to be the “cool” sucker among schoolchildren.

Even as a child, I remember an example of how a couple of moronic groups of gopniks (although they considered themselves “real boys” back then) in my hometown went out in the evenings and beat up homeless people.

Can you imagine? I say this in all seriousness. They walked around in the evenings and abused and beat the homeless.

Moreover, in order to show off in front of each other, they considered it very cool to take something away from them, spit on them, etc.

Rare creatures.

The most shameful thing is that I also succumbed to this provocation once. But I was only enough to throw a small firecracker into the bag of the homeless person.

After which I was extremely ashamed, to the point of tears. I prayed at night and asked for forgiveness, because... I felt incredibly sorry for that homeless man.

My mother saw all this from the window of my house, told it to my father, and I received a good beating. I never did anything like this again, although I had no intention of doing so. Honestly, now that I’m writing all this, I’m still ashamed...

By the way, now many of these fools “real boys” have already served time. They have real deadlines. Someone almost completely lost their health.

What am I getting at:

There was also an example from the army, when it was considered normal to humiliate young conscripts.

Remember what I talked about in the article about the army?

Our old-timers tried to mock my call. Those who succumbed later endured humiliation.

But when the old-timers left, those who were most oppressed tried to take advantage of the younger recruits. Those who were cowardly mongrels spread their feathers and pretended to be authorities. Funny.

From the very beginning it seemed wild and funny to me. As a result, I did not humiliate a single young soldier. On the contrary, he helped them.

I still have excellent relationships with everyone, everyone shakes hands with everyone I meet. And for demobilization, the “young guy” sewed a demobilization shirt for me (naturally, I gave money for all the materials). Moreover, it was his initiative.

Many then wrote letters to me at home.

How to deal with herd mentality?

Psychologists recommend following this line of behavior to combat feelings:

1. Calm in any situation. You can influence a person’s psyche when he is overexcited. Because during this period its protective functions stop working.
2. Thinking is good. Imagining the brain as a muscle that needs to be pumped up is the most correct way. Reading books, learning languages, knowing something new will protect you from outside interference.
3. Analysis of your actions. Determine for yourself what is needed or not, study good personality traits. This helps you understand what needs to be changed in yourself and how best to do it.
4. Don't follow stereotypes. Show yourself as a person with a strong will, demonstrate your desires and follow them.
5. Increased self-esteem and a sense of humor have a beneficial effect.
6. Doubt helps. You can’t take anything for granted, you need to check everything yourself.
7. Living for yourself and your family is the key to success in the fight against the herd instinct.

Herd mentality is not always bad. But manifestations must be under the tireless regular control of the individual. Individuality and harmony with yourself should always come first. Before agreeing to something, you need to think it through carefully - see the consequences, other ways.

BREAKING STEREOTYPES OF THINKING

The role of a stereotype can be negative in its impact, limiting thinking so much that it interferes with the normal functioning of the individual. In this case, there is a desire to get rid of the stereotypes of life that interfere with life itself.

To get rid of patterns and clichés of thinking, you need to learn awareness of perception.

It is necessary to monitor the thoughts and emotions that arise here and now, and focus on the personal experience of what is happening.

Ways to get rid of the negative influence of thinking stereotypes:

Comparison. Comparison involves analyzing a situation, comparing it with others, finding differences and contradictions. There is no need to rush to think in familiar categories when you can think, reflect on what is perceived at the moment and compare it with what is already known.

Setting realistic goals. In order to be less exposed to outside influence, you need to form personal positive stereotypes of life. They can be in the form of real, achievable life goals and values.

Openness of perception. To be able to perceive a phenomenon as a whole, look at it as if for the first time, rediscover new facets of the known and carefully study everything new that the world around us provides.

Critical thinking. You need to be able to ask questions: “Is this really true?”, “Does this thought contradict common sense?”, “Do I agree with what I am used to thinking, hearing, perceiving as truth?” and other similar questions that raise doubts.

Expanding your horizons. You can get rid of stereotypes by developing, learning new things, expanding your horizons, going beyond the usual boundaries of your comfort zone. Interest in learning and acquiring new experiences contributes to the formation of one’s own views and opinions that differ from the generally accepted ones.

These techniques will help you get rid of a specific stereotype that interferes with your life, as well as the habit of thinking in a stereotyped, biased and narrow way.

It is logical to assume that the further evolution of man towards the improvement of the mind will lead to the gradual disappearance of the herd instinct and the individual’s excessive dependence on stereotypical thinking.

This will inevitably entail radical changes in the entire form of existence of civilization on Earth, since the structure of modern human society is largely determined by the instinct of herd hierarchy among people.

We are looking for the cause of fear

As you know, in any problem it is necessary, first of all, to look for the cause of its occurrence. In the case of the girl, the cause of her fear of food, which in scientific terminology is positioned as “cybophobia,” was the stress she experienced from seeing her friend suffer after she ate grapes. It is worth noting that in a stressful state, a person is especially susceptible emotionally, which became a supporting factor for the girl’s brain to create for itself the program “food is the enemy of health!”