yes. its one of the best examples of the downside of the social proof heuristic where a feedback loop is created because people see empty shelves, figure other people are stocking up on X, wonder why they arent, and then panic, then other people see that panicking, and they panic
since people are posting about herd mentality + social perceptions of a situation + people responding to things as groups, heres an interesting story i have about that that i always think of when i hit that topic. taking a break from work in my carport rn btw its really nice out
so i was around, really close to, this shooting that happened in brooklyn once. i also had literally just come back from an ayahusca retreat w this, well they were kind of a cult, so not relevant but just an interesting set up. was not in the headspace first it, if anyone ever is
im walking down this street, its like 8 or 9 pm, its dark. the setting is a non descript street that is residential but in that type of neighborhood, im like a block away from a main busy road with stores, just turned down this street, some people around but not a lot
so [bam] i hear this really loud noise. now whats interesting is that when you flip into panic mode there is a part of your brain called the amygdala that kicks into overdrive and starts taking more in. thats why it seems like time slows down, you have more memories of that time
so i hear this noise and, in a city like that u hear loud noises all the time. u never know what they are. this one was loud though. so this noise happens and id just been walking along and it kind of ticks my radar, and i feel myself kind of “check it” with the people around me
i feel myself intuitively look around and see how everyone else is reacting and nothing is really happening, maybe theyre like kind of doing it a little also but im still in normal mode. then (just a few seconds later) [bam], same noise again.
after hearing the second noise you could feel, like a physiological reaction, the connection with everyone around you. you can feel that everyone is checking in with everyone else, seeing how they’re reacting. this all happened in a few seconds. are people panicking? not really.
but you can feel that the connection and check in is happening, its an innate lizard brain response everyone is having. then [bam] same noise again, and the same way, complete and total herd mentality, you can feel a switch flip and everyone realizes something is not normal.
whats interesting is at this moment, because of where i was standing, i could actually see the shooting happening. maybe 50-80 feet up the street i can see behind a car, theres this light, and my brain is retroactively making the connection that its been synced up with the sound
so i realize that and theres another shot (this is all happening in a few seconds) + everyone starts running. as we’re running, the people that were right there, i can see myself moving through rings of people that are just steps behind in the herd realization of whats happening
so theres this inner ring of people that were right there, we are running obviously, but then at the corner on the next street everyone is in like, stage 2 or 3, checking in with each other not sure what to do, and then they see us running, so they start running.
and then i get a few more blocks away and everyone there is still in stage one, checking in with each other see if something is up. or maybe they didnt hear anything and seeing us running is whats causing them to check in with one another. its not an intellectual realization.
so i always remember that because, it made me realize we all have this deep interconnected lizard social brain that i had never really experienced in that way before. i could feel “the group” assessing the noises (gunshots) and making a collective decision to panic or not.
and like i told it here, i could feel the stages as the gunshots progressed and, im sure everyone else could to. also like i said not everyone could see the gunshots like i could. if a few of us ran everyone probably would have. theres a “herd” part of my brain i was unaware of.
its extremely interesting to me for a variety of reasons. i suspect this type of “checking in with each other” is always happening at some level, and it just becomes conscious when it needs to. i also suspect it happens on a larger macro-scale regardless of physical proximity.
i can also now realize when that first stage which is largely subconscious kicks on. if youre in a crowd of people and a balloon pops or people start acting weird you can feel “the group” check in but 99.9% of the time its nothing and you just slide back down to ur default state.
this feeds into how i think about large scale reactions to events because
a) theres a curve of realization and you want to be on the front of it
and
b) people are going to react in a certain way. its an intrinsic response that cannot be mitigated, its biological
illustrated:
a) theres a curve of realization and you want to be on the front of it
and
b) people are going to react in a certain way. its an intrinsic response that cannot be mitigated, its biological
illustrated:
jamie pull up the story about the fire at that night club
