Mob Mentality

I think it's something we've all experienced: the incredible ability of a large group of people to (1) come up with bad ideas and (2) mutate any possibly good ideas into bad ones.

Last night in FHE, we discussed the charge given to us by the activities committee of creating a three-minute film for the closing social Academy Awards night. I had thought of a possible idea based on my Friday night experience: you see a guy getting ready for a date. Then you show him on the many phases of the date; at the movies, playing in the park, laughing and talking. But you only show him, through the use of clever camera angles. Then you show him at the doorstep. He then starts kissing the girl, but the it turns out he is only kissing himself, you know, that stupid making-out-with-yourself thing. Then, in a Sixth Sense inspired moment, you see clips of him on his date--by himself. Then maybe at the end you see a girl at the next door making out with herself, too. Then they can get together. Who knows.

I was certainly not set on having my idea done, but I did have a few requirements for the film:

• It has to be manageable in 3 minutes.
• It has to have a point.
• It has to at least be good in theory.

The other idea that pooled a lot of support was a girl watching TV. She could surf through the channels and see lots of different TV shows. That means a lot of people would get to participate, which is good, but it would also not have a point, which is bad.

As the group leader, I was moderating the discussion, which meant that I couldn't executively decide that we would do my idea. So I just hinted a lot. Then another girl who was on the same page as I, spoke up and basically decided for the group.

Once we had decided on the idea, the mob mentality took over. Somehow the idea eventually mutated into a black-and-white silent film with people sitting in different apartments asking each other, "I wonder what Limon is up to tonight? He's probably doing whatever," at which point you would see me doing whatever. If I let it go on, it probably would have ended up about a talking whale who befriends Napoleon and carries him away from Elba Island in Jonah-like fashion.

I decided in that moment to end FHE, saying, "The 'details' will be worked out in a smaller group, one comprised of people who can keep from taking a simple idea and distorting it in such a way that even Mandy Moore wouldn't star in it."

The moral of the story is that we should avoid attempting to come to a consensus in a group of more than four people. In a larger group, those who disagree generally keep their mouths shut, opting rather to slowly change the consensus back to their idea through subtle manipulation.