“On April 4, 2004, a man calling himself officer Scott
called a McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Kentucky, U.S.A. He told the assistant
manager, Donna Summers, who answered the phone, there had been a theft and that
Louise Ogborn was the suspect. Ogborn, eighteen, worked at the Macdonald’s in
question, and the man on the other line told Donna Summers to take her into the
restaurant’s office, lock the door, and strip her naked while another assistant
manager watched. He then asked her to describe the naked teenager to him. This
went on for more than an hour, until summers told officer Scott she had to
return to the counter and continue her duties. He asked her if her fiancé could
take over, and so she called him to the restaurant. He arrived shortly after,
took the phone, and then started following instructions. Scott told him to tell
Ogborn to dance, do jumping jacks, and stand on the furniture in the room. He
did. She did. Then, Officer Scott’s requests became more sexual. He told
Summer’s fiancé to make Ogborn sit on his lap and kiss him so that he can smell
her breath. When she resisted, officer Scott told him to spank her, which he
did. More than three hours into the ordeal, officer Scott eventually convinced
Summers’s fiancé to force Ogborn to perform oral sex while he listened. He then
asked for another man to take over, and when a maintenance worker was called in
to take the phone, he asked what was going on. He was shocked and skeptical.
Officer Scott Hung up.”
Conformity in groups is an important aspect of human
behavior. When we are in groups sometimes and most people conform to wrong
decisions and outcomes just to be part of the consensus reached by that group
of people even though it might be the wrong result and you knew that it was
wrong.
For the past two years we have seen incredible inhumane acts
being carried out by people that support the Syrian regime and we kept on
asking, how someone can do such horrendous acts against other people.
I came across a chapter in a book written by David McRaney
called “You are not so smart” which considers the psychology of the human
behavior in an entertaining way. In one of the chapters it talks about
conformity and how it affects us.
The story above is an example of conformity. The writer asks
what makes a person follow the commands of another person they have never met or
have any proof that he was a figure of authority.
To answer that question the author brings up an experiment
that was carried out to demonstrate the effect of decision making in a group of
people. In the experiment the groups were given a series of lines of differing
lengths. They were asked to match the lines that were of the same length. In
one group the majority were actors that were told to match lines that were
obviously not the same length. One person was placed in the group to see how
that person will react to the decision that group has made. In that experiment
75% of the people that at first disagreed finally caved in and went along with
the decision of the group. Not only did they conform without being pressured,
but when later they were questioned they seemed oblivious to their own
conformity. When the experimenter told them they had made an error, them came
up with excuses as to why they made mistakes instead of blaming the others.
The video below shows another experiment that was conducting
in 1963 examine the extent of conformity people will go to.
The above video of the experiment was conducted in response
to the Holocaust.
The experimenter in the above video wondered if an entire
nation could have its moral compass smashed, or if conformity and obedience to
authority were more likely the root of so much compliance to commit unspeakable
evil.
The experimenter of the above video concluded that “his
subjects, and probably millions others, saw themselves as instruments instead
of people. When they became extensions of the person doing the terrible act,
their own will was put aside where it could remain clean of sin. Conformity,
therefore can be manufactured when the person looking for compliance convinces
others they are tools instead of human beings.”
“..when you can see your actions as part of just following
orders, especially from an authority figure, there is a 65% chance you will go
to the brink of murder. Add the risk of punishment or your own harm the chances
of conformity increases.”
Going back to the
incident of Officer Scott mentioned in the beginning, the writer says that “by
the time it was uncomfortable (for the people on the other end of the phone),
the situation had grown in power. They feared retribution if they didn’t follow
new orders, and once they had crossed the line in to territory their morality
couldn’t condone, they phased out of their own personality and into the role of
an instrument of the law.”
The writer finally concludes that we should beware of our
desires to conform and that conformity is strong and unconscious. Although at
times conformity makes things easier for us, especially when it comes to social
conventions. However, he warns of the other side of the dark places conformity
can lead to and adds “Never be afraid to question authority when your actions
could harm yourself or others, even in simple situations...”
