What are people, really?
So here's my hopefully thought-provoking question for the day.
Are people as a group better or worse than people as individuals? I think the most obvious answer people tend to reach for is that the mob is dumber. I can think of at least the MIB line, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." as a point of evidence for how we tend to approach this issue.
More acedmically, there's certainly psychological research which suggests that the diffused sense of responsibility of people sharing an action allows for us to do things that are at the very least crueller, more thoughtless, and more evil.
But there is another side. People have more knowledge combined. There's a reason "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" has a lifeline devoted to polling the crowd, and a surrpising amount of accuracy to what the crowd chooses at least as a majority to be the right answer. In general what most people tend to assume to be correct tends to be the correct thing, at least when it comes to measurable tests of knowledge such as trivia.
I suppose if I were to give the middleing answer, I'd say that people are simply capable of MORE when there are more of us. Given proper organization and proper action, the good we tend to do as a group is often far greater than the good we can do as individuals... at the same time, when we're on the wrong path, be it war or discrimination, we're capable of doing so much worse. Thus an individual is less likely to bring harm, but also less likely to effect change that at least might potentially be for the better.
Your thoughts?
Are people as a group better or worse than people as individuals? I think the most obvious answer people tend to reach for is that the mob is dumber. I can think of at least the MIB line, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." as a point of evidence for how we tend to approach this issue.
More acedmically, there's certainly psychological research which suggests that the diffused sense of responsibility of people sharing an action allows for us to do things that are at the very least crueller, more thoughtless, and more evil.
But there is another side. People have more knowledge combined. There's a reason "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" has a lifeline devoted to polling the crowd, and a surrpising amount of accuracy to what the crowd chooses at least as a majority to be the right answer. In general what most people tend to assume to be correct tends to be the correct thing, at least when it comes to measurable tests of knowledge such as trivia.
I suppose if I were to give the middleing answer, I'd say that people are simply capable of MORE when there are more of us. Given proper organization and proper action, the good we tend to do as a group is often far greater than the good we can do as individuals... at the same time, when we're on the wrong path, be it war or discrimination, we're capable of doing so much worse. Thus an individual is less likely to bring harm, but also less likely to effect change that at least might potentially be for the better.
Your thoughts?