Can You Believe What You See With Your Own Eyes?

Do you believe it because you saw it with your own eyes? Or do you believe it because everyone else says it's true?

We like to think that we trust what we see, but don't be so sure.

Which 2 lines are equal length?

Researchers tested whether a subject will stand alone against group consensus, even when the group consensus is clearly wrong, or buckle to peer pressure.

A group of students were chosen for the test. All but one student was "in on it." The students all agreed to choose the wrong line to see how the real test subject would respond.

What they found  was rather disturbing.

When asked to perform a simple test of choosing which line from Exhibit 2 is equal in length to the line in Exhibit 1, the real test subject got the answer right until it became apparent that all others in the group were choosing a different line. Then the test subject changed their answer to match the group.

Not only did they change their answer to match the majority, but MRI results also indicate they came to believe the new answer was the correct one!

In other words, ...when faced with a majority opinion that is clearly contrary to physical reality, almost half of the population will not only go along with the majority, but will come to actually believe that the majority is right.

It explains a lot, doesn't it? Why some things in history, and even real time, can possibly happen. Think about this knowledge in the wrong hands and how dangerous it can be. It becomes easier to control large groups of people if you can build up a majority to believe in some thing and be vocal about it.

Against the  Flow
http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Against_the_Flow.html

Pole Dancing Drunk Crashes Wedding

You know your ass is drunk when your pole dancing takes out entire wedding party.

Not Very Tech Savvy

When I was working tech support I overheard the agent next to me talking to his customer while trying to help her with her computer.

"Yeah, I don't know...Hmm, I'm really not sure.  I actually don't know much about this stuff, I'm not very tech savvy."

When someone calls tech support they really don't want to tech support guy to admit he's not tech savvy.

Facebook: Exposing the Crazy

Do you have one of those serial frienders on your Facebook? You know the one, they friend anyone and everyone. They have hundreds, if not thousands of friends. Sometimes they even set up a second profile to try to manage the mess.

These are the same people who most often bitch that so many people on Facebook are fake. They complain that the people on their list are not real friends and they don't really care.

These serial frienders are also serial deleters. They go on rampages where they delete huge masses from their friends list. They post those veiled cut-and-paste threats that say they will be watching to see who responds to their post.

Facebook is such a huge venue for watching the crazy unleash. I love it. But I often wonder, what did these people do before Facebook? Did they exist before Facebook, or does Facebook someone breed crazy? If they existed before, how did they go about serial friending and unfriending? Or did they just have to be content with being crazy on a much smaller scale? Shouldn't science be studying this?