Oct. 19, 2008
Fear Factor: How Herd Mentality Drives Us
"Group Think" Has Its Advantages When Confronting Lions ... But What About Wall Street?
-
Herd mentality can direct behavior, from the African Savannah to the jungles of Wall Street. (AP/Image Source; AP/Richard Drew)
-
Interactive The Wiring Of The Brain Find out what each part of the brain does, and when in a person’s life these areas are developed.
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even wildebeests do it.
One by one they gather in big groups - and think and act as one.
What is herd mentality?
"It's the idea that the individual members of a herd relate, behave in a similar fashion," said Pat Thomas, general curator at the Bronx Zoo. "And that's so that they don't stand out and appear different than their group mates."
"If they act too much out of the norm, more often than not they're singled out and identified by a predator - and don't survive very long."
Herds can be awesome, moving and flowing in masses, reminding us that in nature there's the quick - and the dead.
And those who stay scared are more likely to stay alive.
Fear: It makes animals run in herds. Could it also cause otherwise thoughtful people to stop thinking for themselves and follow the crowd?
Look at Wall Street …
See-sawing stocks. Rallies and crashes. Investors buying and selling before they've had time to think.
"We are mammals, just like the wildebeest in the plains of the African Savannah," said Andrew Lo, who studies emotions and economics at MIT.
He says when fear sets in, we have little choice but to behave like animals, using a different part of the brain - what some scientists have called the "mammalian brain."
At Emory University in Georgia, Dr. Gregory Berns showed us how the brain reacts to fear.
It comes from a part of the brain that's called the amygdala, the seat of the fear response.
That is what kicks into overdrive when your 401(k) tanks.
"Whether it's the fear of being the odd person out, whether it's the fear of uncertainty or the fear of losing your shirt in the market, the fear starts to compel you to do something, because a million years ago, that fear meant you probably had to run or fight," Berns said.
But reactions that saved our ancestors from saber-toothed tigers don't make as much sense on the floor of the Stock Exchange.
Financial historian Jeff Madrick says that's how we got into trouble in the first place - by developing the notion that the stock is highly rational. "That encouraged this herd behavior," he said. "People would say, 'The stock market is right. Let's get in here.' That was the mythology that fed the herd behavior."
So the group think that helped build the bubble is now leading the charge to pop it.
"I think there's probably a panic now," Madrick said. Berns agreed: "You could call it panic; I would."
But the Bronx Zoo's Pat Thomas says, "It's definitely a survival mechanism."
"The research that neuroscientists have developed seem to suggest that herd mentality, on the downside - that is, in reaction to panic and fear - is far more powerful than the herd mentality associated with greed - herd mentality on the upside," said Lo.
"Because fear trumps greed?" asked Landis.
"Fear always trumps greed, that's right," said Lo. "From an evolutionary perspective, it's a lot more important for you to be scared and run away from danger than for you to be excited and happy and thrilled about your life."
"It's better to be scared and alive than -"
"- Happy and dead, yeah," Lo laughed.
Yes, we may be smarter than beasts of burden, but we're still creatures of habit.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More From
The secrets of tennis legend 
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 49 Commentsthese are the same people that believed the earth was flat or that the sun goes around the earth just because the church said so, these are the same folks that attended executions of witches hundreds of years ago, like a herd and they are the same ones that screamed and cheered in those events, today they direct that energy supporting the troops, the cowboys, the spiritual revival etc.....
the best part of it all is that they missed on their predictions and were indeed misled like the herd they are.
9/11, Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction, axis powers of evil, your either with or against us, Threat level Orange, terrorist sneaking through our boarders, pay no attention to that VP hiding behind that curtain...
Posted by FrogProphet at 06:49 PM : Oct 19, 2008
You''re exactly right. The Rep''s still haven''t learned that we''re not gonna be frightened into voting Rethuglican again.
They''ve cried wolf too many times and used it to line their pockets at our expense.
We''ll hear em cryin wolf right up till Nov 4th, after that we''ll just hear em crying.
Posted by ObservantX at 09:23 PM : Oct 19, 2008
You ARE the herd.
--- Posted by OneAmerican7 at 09:09 PM : Oct 19, 2008
You are COMPLETELY OFF BASE!
Obama plans to reduce the taxes of 95% of the working people in this country, and increase the taxes of 5%. McCain wants to reduce the taxes of the top 5%, and scr/ew the rest.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."
And that, folks, is why the republican strategy this election is to make you afraid... fear the terrorists, fear the black men, fear everyone with a different religion, fear the socialists, fear the "liberals", fear... fear... fear!
If you buy into that fear, you become the kind of animal that yells out "kill him" at political rallies. You become a moron like "Joe the plumber", believing McCain will reduce your taxes (or make you safer, or whatever) EVEN THOUGH THE FACTS DISAGREE.
Isn''t about time for the people of this country to grow up, to start behaving like actual human beings, to use their God-given intelligence to pick a leader who has a chance to step away from the precipice, rather than continue the mad rush to destruction?
Obama isn''t perfect; no one is. But McCain is completely wrong about the economy, wrong about the war, wrong about EVERYTHING. And he can''t even make up his mind from one day to the next (or even from one hour to the next!) The choice this time isn''t even a close call.
In the upcoming election, sane people will vote for Obama and the suicidal and the delusional and the in.sane will vote for McCain. On election night, the numbers will tell us whether we''ve taken a step towards humanity or have descended into madness.
Good luck!
NO-One Believes your Fabricated, Perverted and Deranged Statements
When are You and the rest of the Loyal : Republican NAZI Fascist Party
Going to get it Through Your Head
THE SOUTH __ IS NOT __ GOING TO RISE UP AGAIN ! ! !
THE STARS AND BARS - DO NOT - EXIST ANYMORE
Posted by ObservantX at 09:23 PM : Oct 19, 2008
Just count how many anti-GOP posts there are, compared to anti-Democrat posts.
You ARE the herd.
MOO yourself.
Republicans good!
Ba-a-a-a-a-h
Democrats B-a-a-a-ad!
The herd at work
''Nuff said.
Posted by OneAmerican7 at 09:09 PM : Oct 19, 2008
ALL Democrats try to do this.
Democrats ARE the herd.
That''s why we still need the GOP to stop them from doing EVERYTHING they want.
Why, poor old Slick Willy got so frustrated that he had to make himself feel better with a girl named Monica... or so he said.
As far as the herd mentality? Speak for yourself because you certainly aren''t speaking for me. I didn''t give you permission.
9/11, Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction, axis powers of evil, your either with or against us, Threat level Orange, terrorist sneaking through our boarders, pay no attention to that VP hiding behind that curtain...
Posted by FrogProphet at 06:49 PM : Oct 19, 2008
Spoken like a true member of the herd.
Endorsed by each John McCain Supporter
The Bush NAZI Fascist Regine
Fabricated Reports - Intentionally Delivered to
the American people to Falsely and Fraudulently
Advocate a War !
Ordered Criminal Wiretaps - Criminal Surveillance Techniques
FDA = Lead Painted Toys - Defective Merchandise
Tainted and Poisoned Food - Destined for The American Family
Granting Immunity to Blackwater
(Murder of Women and Children-Smuggling Arms and Weapons
Halliburton - (No Bid Defense Contracts)
Kellogg, Brown & Root -
(Kidnapping - S*e*x*ual Assault and R*a*pe) Again
Selling of and Instructions how to use
Nuclear Weapon Technology
Allowing Millions of People into Home Foreclosure
because of Intentional Fraud
Financial BAIL OUT for Criminal Bankers and Criminal Lenders
The FBI - A Criminal Organization
Outsourcing good paying American Jobs for
SLAVE LABOR and CHILD FORCED SLAVE LABOR
An INSTITUTION of SLAVERY
Ordering and Approving of : Rape, Child Sodomy,
Torture and Murder of people within US Detention Centers
(Guantanamo Bay)
POLITICIZED The Federal Civil Service with Appointments
The Republican NAZI Fascist Party Created :
ECONOMIC STRIFE .. That is Being used as a Weapon to :
ELIMINATE a DEMOCRACY and REPLACE IT
With : The TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIP of : A NAZI FASCIST RULE
Against the American People
The DELUSIONAL of GRANDEUR DISORDER of each :
John McCain Supporter ! !
Democrats PERSONIFY the "herd" mentality.
The Democrat plan has ALWAYS been
Do more to help the poor
Work to protect the environment and develop "clean" energy sources
Relieve the populations of any form of personal responsibility - even when they want to keep some.
But what they REALLY do is
Chase women
Drink
Kill a few people and call it an "accident."
Make themselves rich
Get re-elected by renewing promises to do the plan
When someone asks them how much of the plan have they actually accomplished, they say "What?"
The Clinton years would have been a GREAT time to start developing some alternative energy sources. But instead, people drove Hummers and monster SUV''''s, because oil was cheap and the supply would NEVER END.
Opportunity lost...
9/11, Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction, axis powers of evil, your either with or against us, Threat level Orange, terrorist sneaking through our boarders, pay no attention to that VP hiding behind that curtain...
Posted by msa123 at 05:09 PM : Oct 19, 2008
Democrats PERSONIFY the "herd" mentality.
The Democrat plan has ALWAYS been
Do more to help the poor
Work to protect the environment and develop "clean" energy sources
Relieve the populations of any form of personal responsibility - even when they want to keep some.
But what they REALLY do is
Chase women
Drink
Kill a few people and call it an "accident."
Make themselves rich
Get re-elected by renewing promises to do the plan
When someone asks them how much of the plan have they actually accomplished, they say "What?"
The Clinton years would have been a GREAT time to start developing some alternative energy sources. But instead, people drove Hummers and monster SUV''s, because oil was cheap and the supply would NEVER END.
Opportunity lost...
When are you : CHRISTIAN RACIST
Republican NAZI Fascist Supporters
Going to Learn
THE SOUTH - IS NOT - GOING TO RISE UP AGAIN ! ! !
THE STARS AND BARS - ARE NO MORE ! ! !
Fat chance ***, not gonna happen. You''ve stampeded enough trailer trash and closet Klan members over the years, but it''s all caught up with you.
In the face of total economic collapse and a major depression on the horizon, you''ve got zip, nada, nothing, zero, to help the situation.
Take your seat at the back of the bus.
Fat chance ***, not gonna happen. You''ve stampeded enough trailer trash and closet Klan members over the years, but it''s all caught up with you.
In the face of total economic collapse and a major depression on the horizon, you''ve got zip, nada, nothing, zero, to help the situation.
Take your seat at the back of the bus.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 49 Comments