“Let’s See Them Aliens”
By: S. J. Gordon
Tags: Culture, Psychology, Social Media, Neuroscience, Life

Unless you have superhuman self-control and are far higher minded than your fellow humanoids, you have been on social media and have heard all about the Storm Area 51 event and the resulting hilarity on all sides. I haven’t seen so many memes on one subject since the end of the Mayan calendar.

In fact, the only ones not amused would be the U.S. Air Force. They have been forced to officially respond to this prank while keeping their eye-rolling to a minimum. You will not be surprised to hear that they are discouraging the entire idea.

Here’s the part that gets me.

Why in the world would the Air Force have to worry that such a ridiculous prank should require any serious response?

Yes, more than a million people have expressed interest in this crazy idea of storming Area 51, but everyone understands it’s all just a joke, right? No one will show up at the tourist center on September 20th, right?

Except, you see, someone just might and that’s the problem.

Mob mentality is a real thing and researchers are beginning to understand that, while an individual will have specific moral limits to their behavior, when in a group, the human brain suppresses that personal code of conduct.

There seems to be more than one factor involved.

In part, researchers believe that the relative anonymity of a group enables us to let go of our standards and adopt the thinking of the group at large. You would never want to be the one who calls someone a terrible name but when dozens are yelling insults, it is very easy to join in. After all, who will notice one more voice?

We tend to find it easier to defend our actions when we can say, “Everyone was doing it.” When the behavior can’t be easily traced, or traced at all, to the individual, the person feels safer engaging in actions they would never consider otherwise.

The other, and, in my mind, more concerning idea is that, in the atmosphere of Group Think, it seems possible that we actually begin to lose our sense of self.

A study done by sociologist, Mina Cikara, at Carnegie Mellon University looked at the activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain associated with thinking related to oneself. When making moral decisions independently, the study showed expected activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. However, when making decisions as a part of a group, this activity level was diminished.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

We can probably all come up with instances in which we saw a mob mentality in action, even within our personal lives. Sadly, we see it all too often in the news. In fact, I suspect when you hear the term, it suggests images of huge groups of people running rampant in the streets, breaking windows and tossing garbage cans around the park.

Unfortunately, I think it happens a great deal more often than that in and much less visually dramatic ways.

There has been a great deal of talk in recent years about bullying and how to end and even prevent it. It’s a laudable and vitally necessary effort. And what is bullying but a form of group thinking?

When a group of preteen girls band together to humiliate a classmate in gym class while the other students stand by, laughing, what else can we call it? It’s nothing more or less than an out of control mob. Any one of those children, on their own, would be likely to condemn such treatment of another but, when part of a group, all participating, they join in with frightening rapidity.

Behavior masked by anonymity? A loss of self in the process of group decision making? Yes, I certainly think so. There is even pressure to be a part of the group. “Be one of us, not one of them.”

It’s not an uplifting scenario.

If only it ended in the school yard.

Though, we all know it doesn’t. Adult social groups are every bit as guilty of appalling mob thinking. It may not take the same form as preteen bullying, but it is there, just the same.

When one group of people band together to find fault with another group or an individual, generally because of perceived differences such as race, religion, sexual orientation, and politics, we often stray from our personal moral code in favor of a larger group ideal.

This fact does not make me proud.

It is distressing to think that our minds willingly give over our individuality in favor of moving along with the crowd.

And this is why the Air Force had to official respond to the Storm Area 51 event.

While you and I can enjoy a chuckle over the idea of a crowd of people, all in a “Naruto run,” racing toward the boundaries of the base, share a few of the, frankly, hilarious alien memes floating around social media, and giggle as we speculate about the mind that would hatch such a crazy idea, we must not forget the power of more than a million people thinking together.

How many might actually take such a suggestion seriously? Would anyone think that it would be okay simply because, as the event coordinator suggested, they couldn’t “stop us all?” Could people succumb to the power of mob mentality and turn up in the Nevada desert on September 20th?

I would like to think not. I would like to believe that, as a society, we are safe in having a bit of fun at the government’s expense and laughingly talk of racing through the scrub to breach the boundaries and free the aliens.

After all, you and I would never lose our sense of self like that.

Right?

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