Group dynamics, constraint within groups and peer pressure

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12.01.2019 | www.kla.tv/13679

Kurt Lewin (Leveen) (1890-1947) was one of the founders of modern experimental social psychology. He conducted experiments to illustrate the dynamics of social and individual behaviors. Lewin in collaboration with Edward L. Bernays* explored experimentally how peer compulsion and peer pressure work. The results show how much power a group has over its individual members. Here is an example: As long as a personality does not come under pressure it is balanced, in harmony and able to make differentiated decisions. As soon as pressure is exerted the inner self passes into a state of emergency. Through pressure people lose their will and such an environment will take control over their personality. According to Bernays everyone, regardless of their educational background and intelligence, could potentially face peer pressure. The bigger a group, the less one can withstand the pressure. So in a group situation it seems very difficult to maintain an individual, dissenting assessment. During experiments within a group a momentum of its own develops and decisions are no longer made according to clear factual considerations. An important factor here is the fear of what others may think when a different opinion is advocated. Important experiments were conducted by the psychologist Solomon Asch in the nineteen fifties. His experiments in 1951 became famous as the "conformity experiment". There, a number of pretend participants of the experiment were sitting at a conference table. In truth there was only one test person at a time, the others were instructed by the investigator. On a screen the participants were shown three adjacent lines and a bit to the side a fourth one. Then the test persons were asked to indicate which of the three right hand lines is as long as the left hand line. The right answer was always obvious and easily recognizable. For six out of a total of eighteen estimates the pretend participants should give correct guesses and for twelve they should be intentionally wrong. In those twelve rounds in which the group was deliberately wrong, not a single test person was able to remain free from errors. On average they were wrong in 37 percent of the cases. That does not sound like very much, but it is important to note that everyone was mistaken at least once, although the result was obviously wrong and there were no complex issues to consider. Further experiments showed that the error frequency increased strongly as the dissenting group became larger. In other words, the larger the group, the lower the percentage of those who can avoid peer pressure. The extent to which experimental insights explored over the last century by Levin (leveen), Bernays and Asch in regards to group dynamics, constraint within groups and peer pressure have in the meantime become reality, will be discussed here more closely. Because of modern technologies that have reached enormous dimensions, today people can be manipulated and controlled insidiously and unnoticed worldwide. How? By now three global news agencies keep reports and assessments of world events under control. But in reality, it is only one, as they are all saying the same thing, only with different words. In this way, they exert an enormous group pressure, because it is becoming almost impossible to maintain one's own assessment against the perpetual repetition of the same biased information in seemingly hundreds and thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. Yet, only very few people are aware of how cunningly this phenomenon is used by those who understand how to manipulate the masses. Under these circumstances, how are people supposed to judge if news and reports correspond to reality? Without even realizing it, people can be guided in every possible direction and in all areas of human life: In politics, economics, education, arts, etc. This method is used especially for the preparation and waging of wars. The strategy is always the same: What is to be enforced is disseminated through the media - often piecemeal and with well-sounding words, in a disguised form - and manifested in the minds of people through prayer-like repetition. In this fashion, any random approval by the general public can be obtained by fraud and so the path to enforcing the pursued goals is paved. As a result of this distressful situation alternative media have emerged all over the world, trying to get to the bottom of world affairs. However, at this point the principle of group dynamics is already taking effect: As the vast majority are informed only via the mass media, they are no longer able to open up their minds for a totally different reality, which most of the time is diametrically opposed to the information of the leading media. Is there still a way out of this situation? We say: YES THERE IS! For the experiments of Salomon Asch revealed something else, and this gives hope. As soon as one of the pretend participants was told to join in the right assessment, the failure rate of the test subjects dropped dramatically. In video recordings of this experiment the gratitude of the test persons can be seen in in their faces as soon as someone else gives the correct assessment. This encourages participants to stick to one's own assessment. However, also in the case of faulty assessments by the pretend participants, a test subject was able to profit. When other participants were wrong, but at the least their estimates differed from the majority, the success rate increased also. In other words: even people advocating differing opinions that are not correct, can help in evading group pressure. So, he who dares to trust again his own intuition and to open up to dissenting voices, he who takes heart to have his own opinion and perception, wins twice. First of all, he can escape from his own erroneous programming step by step and secondly, he inspires other people to embark upon this path too. By networking with those of the dissenting voices, genuine and practical, there will be an immense force breaking through the negative barriers for a more peaceful world. * Father of Public Relations and nephew of Sigmund Freud, 1891-1955

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Sources/Links: Sources: www.kla.tv/12878
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Asch