There is one sentence that touches me deeply.
Ask: "How do you have an extraordinary life?"
Answer: "Don't be an ordinary person. ”
What is ordinary? At this time, the thoughts, words, and deeds of the majority of people in society are ordinary. In ancient times, if a person talked about and practiced equality between men and women, it was not ordinary, but today, when talking about and practicing equality between men and women, it is ordinary.
In his article "The Silent Majority", Wang Xiaobo pointed out that most Chinese do not like to speak in public and reason with others because they believe in the truth that "opening is silver, silence is gold".
More than 70 years ago, psychologists conducted tightly controlled experiments to find the answer, that is, to study the behavior of individuals in groups.
When they studied the mechanism and boundary conditions of the herd phenomenon, especially the effect of the "crowd word", they found a rather surprising result.
The so-called "many" effect refers to how many people express opinions that are similar to each other but contradict your views before you speak.
If everyone before you speak said so, then there is a high probability that you will change your mind, known as the "unanimous word" effect.
Recently, I used AI as a team member to participate in experiments, and I also found that the effect of robots expressing different opinions is comparable to that of human members!
The reason for this is that the statements of "dissenting people" can impact or even destroy the consensus established by the majority of people, and it has greatly encouraged those who come after them to dare to express their true thoughts.
This effect of conformity, which is exactly the opposite, we call it "the power of one person".
Power comes from the majority, that is, from the majority. However, the direction comes from a few!
In the case of rivers, a few people are the ones who cut the slopes in the road, the people who build dams somewhere, the ones who dig bends somewhere...... The river follows this direction dominated by a few.
The Burkson paradox states that under certain conditions, the judgment of a few people is more accurate than that of the majority. The name of this paradox comes from the work of the statistician Burkeson.
Burkson found that when a minority views an issue differently than the majority, but the minority is related, i.e., they share common experience and knowledge, the minority tends to be more accurate than the majority.
This paradox also has many real-life applications, such as in investment decisions, political elections, and team decisions.
Management scientists believe that an effective team should include different voices, i.e., different experiences and perspectives. When making decisions, team members should actively listen to the voices of a small number of people, especially those who are connected.
In short, in real life, we should actively listen to the voices of the minority, especially those who are connected. These voices may provide new ideas and solutions that will help us make more accurate decisions.
There is a very classic American movie "Twelve Angry Men", which tells the story of how a jury member who believes that the defendant is innocent expresses his opinion and finally convinces the other eleven jury members who unanimously believe that the defendant is guilty.
Judging from the real events of history, the progress of human cognition and the development of civilization have not been lacking in cases where a few people have influenced the majority.
The first scholar to develop the concept of "minority influence" and to do a great deal of empirical research was Serge Moscovici.
He believes that there are many examples in history where a few can influence the many and change the perception of the majority.
For example, Galileo, Darwin, Marx, and Einstein used to belong to the "minority", but it was precisely because of their courage to "offend" the existing social norms that their thinking changed the majority of people's perception of things, and then finally became the mainstream voice and changed the course of history. The power of the few should not be underestimated.
Therefore, when we find out that we are in the "minority", we don't need to be too nervous and afraid.
When you speak your "minority voice" in a trembling voice, it can give those behind you more courage to express their opinions.
The influence of the majority on the minority and the influence of the minority on the majority should be symmetrical, not one-sided, which is a "two-way influence process".
Moscovich later studied the circumstances under which the minority could effectively influence the majority.
The first important condition is the way in which a few people behave. For example, to put forward one's own point of view based on ultimate truth and justice.
The second is consistency of behavior. If a minority persists in a single point of view, it can have a considerable impact on the majority over time.
If you find that people are completely ignoring your questions the first time, and you raise new ideas to express your doubts in the second or third meeting, you will be less likely to be able to influence them.
The third is that the attitude of the minority does not appear to be too stubborn.
For example, if you have a different opinion in a meeting, but someone responds to your objection and explains why they think you are too pessimistic. If, at this time, you still show that you are completely unable to listen to their explanations and are still "stubborn", then the impact of your opinion on them will be quite limited.
Conversely, if you can objectively acknowledge their analysis, but at the same time emphasize the legitimacy of your position, your influence on them will increase.
Let's go back to the "two-way process". Moscovich's key argument is that the phenomenon of conformity does not mean that individuals who conform to the herd really accept the views of the crowd from the heart, and in most cases they do so in order to "fit in" and be accepted by the crowd.
Therefore, once this social pressure is removed or does not exist, people will revert to their original perspective.
The opposite is true when a few influence the many.
A small number of people are "weak", and even if some of the majority agree with them, they are forced to express themselves under "pressure" in order to draw a clear relationship between themselves and them.
However, the views of the minority often challenge the ideas of the majority, causing them to stir up ripples of thought in their minds and make them look at things from different angles.
This process has the potential to lead them to gradually accept the views of a minority, but it usually takes a while.
At this time, once the social pressure is lifted, or in the absence of the "minority", they may instead accept "heresy". Unlike conformity, this kind of acceptance must indicate inner approval.
The power of the few, that's it.