Herd Mentality and Us: The Blending In

Living Happy Extra

Photo by Andrea Lightfoot on Unsplash

In his EdX class, “Crafting Realities: Work, Happiness, and Meaning,” Professor Ramya Ranganathantalks about how there is safety in herds, in not standing out, in

And in my life, this has been one of my big things—a fear of being noticed because I associated being noticed with not being safe.

Even when I’d do presentations to hundreds of people, I’d have to shut off that fear to present. Fortunately, my fear of letting down people overcomes my fear of being noticed. It’s a pretty weird internal conflict, actually.

One part of me yells, “Do a good job.” The other part of me yells, “Hide!”

Evolution

Anyway, Ranganathanwrites that this herd mentality, the blending in, comes from evolution. He says that iin the time of early man there was safety in moving and living in a group, a herd. The predators had a harder time attacking us if we blended in. He says that “we are actually hardwired to want to blend in with the herd.”