Collective Stupidity -- How Can We Avoid It?

When I was young, my father told me that the louder and more confident sounding a person was, the more you should be suspicious of the points they were trying to make. This perspective has served me well in life.

Can we take a minute to appreciate Sabine's excellent sense of dry German humour?

You've all probably heard this one before.... A teacher was giving a lesson about the Salem Witch Trials and he set up the rules for a practical hands-on lesson. “I'm going to come around and whisper to each of you whether you're a witch or a regular person. “ Your goal is to build the largest group possible that does NOT have a witch in it. At the end, any group found to include a witch gets a failing grade." The teens dove into grilling each other. One fairly large group formed, but most of the students broke into small, exclusive groups, turning away anyone they thought gave off even a hint of guilt. “Okay," the teacher said. "You've got your groups. Time to find out which ones fail. All witches, please raise your hands." No one raised a hand. The kids were confused and told the teacher he'd messed up the game. "Did I? Was anyone in Salem an actual witch? Or did everyone just believe what they'd been told?" And that is how you teach kids how easy it is to divide a community. Given our current state of affairs, does this sound familiar to anyone? Does it not reflect the current affairs globally? So ask yourself the question, who is making the claims and who benefits? It's almost never a case of this side is always wrong or this side is always the right side.

I have a strong suspicion that those who might benefit most from this presentation, would be the least likely to watch it ?

In college I had a class in critical thinking. The instructor had us get into groups of 7. We read compound sentences and interpreted the sentences. We agreed on several compound sentences but then came a confusing sentence. We debated and 6 of us agreed that the sentence meant one thing but the 7th team member disagreed. One fellow just said “he’s wrong, move on.” I said “let him explain himself, because maybe he’s right.” And so we heard the lone dissenter, and it became clear to all of us, except the guy that wanted to move on quickly, that the lone dissenter was correct in his analysis. The guy that refused to listen to the lone dissenter never would change his mind. But I wonder if that wasn’t some sort of a social experiment and the disagreeable fellow was a plant to see how we would respond. I’d like to believe we passed the test, if it was a test.

My mother started warning me at a very early age,”beware of the crowd mentality”. I think she was talking about “Group Stupidity”.

Human ignorance is the biggest problem facing humanity. This is an excellent video that just touches on this topic. There if far more to this subject than people realize.

When I led a team of 130 engineers, managers and other professionals, I found that meeting once a week in an open setting of all primary stakeholders where every stakeholder was given time to speak their mind, report progress, request any needed resources, and identify risks and problems that they see was a critical process step that enabled the entire team to accomplish their extremely difficult and complex goal after 19 months on schedule and under budget. Speaking up was encouraged, and reporting problems and risks at the earliest possible time was rewarded with mitigating resources. Also all was reported up the chain with only minor editorial changes.

My Mom used to work with a child abuse agency. She said that there is a special way to question kids so you don't influence what they say. Kids often say what they think you want to hear instead of their personal observations, so you have to avoid asking leading questions. For example, if you are asking about if a door was open or closed, you ask "how was the door?"

Collective stupidity has become a force of nature as of late. I put it down largely to the internet and the echo chambers it has created but there's still more to it...

I love it!: "I've given up on correcting Wikipedia on quantum mechanics". Spot on Sabine.

This reminds me of "Bonhoeffers Theory of Stupidity" which explains nicely how almost everyone you know seemingly lost their minds over the last few years. Fantastic video today!!

Never underestimate the power of herd behaviour. I had an amazing example some years ago (before we all got Waze in our pocket). I was like many other people driving home from holidays. The traffic on the highway was very dense but still fluid. Then there was a police car next to the largest mobile electronic sign that I ever saw outside concerts. It read "Warning ! Work ahead - 1 lane only. Currently : 20 km jam, 4 hours delay! Alternative: take next exit and follow signs. 15 min delay". So I left the overcrowded highway and followed the signs. To my utter amazement,I was totally alone. I saw no car in front of me or in my mirror for about 15 minutes. Talk about ignoring your personal information to follow the herd 😮 Herd behaviour is exacerbated in stress and disaster situations. I had emergency training with firemen for my work and one of the first thing they taught was that, if you are ever caught in a disaster, ignore the crowd, stop 30 seconds to observe and think by yourself. They had numerous examples of crowds passing right in front of emergency exits and ignoring them, or worse, running towards the danger...

I learned this one absolutely years ago in my youth. I knew (I didn't grow up in Europe) that Poland had a coastline. Obviously. I was decently educated enough to know this simple fact. I met a friend who came from the UK, and swore up and down that it did not! He was emphatic! He was so certain of himself. I am the 8th child of 9. I was NEVER the best in my family in any subject or sport and had been badly bullied at school. I doubted myself despite the certain knowledge Poland had a coast, after hearing him be so certain I was wrong and he was right. After years of always being told I was wrong in everything, I shrugged and said "you must be right". Later, I checked because of a nagging feeling. Nope, I have been right all along. Later as I lived longer and got older and just a little bit wiser, I discovered that I had been put down unfairly by others. I was right far more often than wrong and that others had caused me to have an unjustly negative self image. I had been trained to consider myself automatically as of less value and wrong compared to others. Now I question even those who seem convinced of themselves. I am still not always right. I am not as intelligent as I would like to be and I know that I am only a short distance above the average, aka, enough to obtain a bachelors degree. This doesn't mean I allow myself to be swept aside any more and I am no longer as easy to fool. Confidence or lack thereof is a HUGE factor in this. People put their faith too easily in those who speak with emphatic confidence rather than real experts because we naively assume no one would be so certain unless they had facts. But there is a large group of the population who fall in the dunning kruger way, to the false self belief in themselves that is the polar opposite of the condition I once had having no faith in myself whatsoever. These people believe they are always right despite having very little knowledge or facts on their side, and speak with conviction, misleading the crowds. Just trust NONE of it. Neither yourself nor others without checking into all of whatever it is yourself carefully. And then check again doubted your first conclusion. I never followed the crowd. That was part of my school yard downfall. I refused to follow, and became a loner. This no longer leaves me feeling the least bit sad. When I got to uni, I discovered veritable communities of loners! And we are better off than the followers. They are walking about with blindfolds on being led by the untrustworthy.

so many great lines. " how to prevent hair from looking like sauerkraut" , " little difference between you and a cheese cracker." all delivered deadpan. high quality comedy.

Thanks! Keep making these great videos. As an American living in Germany for 5 years, I appreciate your sense of humor in ways not possible if I had never left the USA. You are an excellent explainer. Please keep sharing your insights.

Great video and explanations as usual. One minor correction. The "prison experiment" was conducted by Philip Zimbardo at Standford . Stanley Milgram is known for his experiments on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale.

One of the many great pieces of advice my dad gave me is: If EVERYONE is doing it or saying it or thinking it, proceed with caution and examine it closely. I have added to that: The truth or reality is static, but perceptions are dynamic.

I don't need others to be collectively stupid. I do fine on my own

It's been a while since visiting. I forgot how dead pan hilarious Sabine is. 'Prevent my hair from looking like cauliflower', 'you vs. a cheese cracker! > I had to back that one up, wasn't sure I 'heard what I heard"! Thanks Sabine, for the education and the laughs.