Saturday, November 6, 2010

Goose Stepping as a Brain Washing Technique?


Here's an interesting article from last year's Telegraph: "Goose stepping may have encouraged people to follow the Nazis".

According to Science Correspondent Richard Alleyne, Researchers have found that if groups perform tasks in unison, such as marching, dancing and chanting, they show more loyalty towards each other and are less likely to go against the norm.

The findings, published in New Scientist, could explain why the likes of Hitler and Mussolini both seemingly had the ability to bend millions of people to their will.

The article cites research from Stanford indicating that when people do things in unison with a larger group, they begin to see the group's welfare as being as important as their own. In other words, synchronization helps make individuals more cohesive and malleable.

The researchers essentially used new technology (like the brain scans seen in the recent Angelina Jolie film Salt) to confirm what most of us have recognized all along: no one feels comfortable being out of step.

Full story here.

Have a great weekend. But please, don't do anything we wouldn't do.

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