2023-04-29

I recently read about an interesting psychological experiment. It’s that one where a person is asked which of 3 lines is longest. The twist is that they are part of a group, and everyone else responds with their choice first. And the other respondents deliberately give the wrong answer, and they all give the same answer. Then the subject has a choice of whether to say the truth or go along with the group. And the overwhelming majority of subjects (like 75%) choose to go along with the group. My initial reaction was “yeah, that checks out, I’d probably do the same.” And then today, I realized that I was right, and had been doing this kind of thing for ages. Specifically, I used to say that some beers “taste good.” Of course, this has yet to be the real truth of my tongue when it comes to beer. But in college and after, so many social situations centered around “getting a beer” somewhere. And I think I was rightfully concerned that expressing my real experience in that area would not move me closer to my main goal of hanging out with my friends regularly. And so, I just said what everyone else said and went along to get along. Sometimes experiments and real life end up being pretty similar.

April 29, 2023