TheAP wrote:
Joe90: I completely agree.
Austinfrom1995: I think the "sheep" thing is just about what appears on the surface, and ignores the fact that NTs are just trying to figure their lives out too. To think of a person as a sheep ignores how complex all people are. In addition, is there any evidence for the idea that NTs are driven by conformity?
I wouldn't go so far as to call NTs sheep, but there is rather a preponderance of scientific evidence which demonstrates that people (moreso NTs by virtue of their instinctively more social nature) are very much driven by conformity. One such study had participants sitting in a waiting room which was being filled with a smoke-like substance from under the door of the next room. If the participant was alone, they would report the smoke to someone in charge, but if they were with other "particpants" (actually experimenters planted in the scenario), and the other particpants made no move to report the smoke, the real participant wouldn't either. The more people there were, the less likely the subject was to break out of the social pattern and report the apparent threat.
Another experiment of a similar nature had participants grouped with three other people, all experimenters pretending to be other subjects. They performed very simple identification tasks with cards, such as, "show me which of the four lines is longest", and "which of these vehicles is good for transporting large objects." The participants would start out by selecting the correct answer, but the experimenters/fake subjects deliberately collaborated and chose the wrong answer. The majority of the time, the real subject would change his answer to conform to the group's, despite it being obviously incorrect. Such is the power of social conformity.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
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