"Human Swarm" are we somewhat immune?

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OK, there will be a significant number of things we have in common with NTs because we are, after all human too.

There was a programme on TV last night, which I was too sleepy to watch other than the intro, but it got me thinking:

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/prog ... uman-swarm

As Aspies, are we less prone to a lot of the behaviours that are meant to be classic human behaviour? It's pretty much based on data that is collected about everything we do nowadays:

Sounds like an interesting programme! I didn't get to see it either unfortunately.

I think the answer to your question is yes, in my case. Because I tend to think outside the box about odd things.

Take for example the very simple and classic example of human swarm behaviour: people buy more ice creams when it is hot.

Q: I'm hot. What would be refeshing?
The socially acceptable default answer: An ice cream.
The odd-thinking-outside-the-box answer: Something cold. Cold things are stored in freezers. What could I eat from the freezer that would not give me food poisoning and would not break my teeth too much? A bag of frozen peas maybe?

Of course eating frozen peas is not that unusual, for NTs or aspies . But my overall point is that I think there is a greater tendancy for aspies to go for the "odd" answer, in any scenario.

I don't know if this is anything to do with this but each year I have noticed that the extra busiest times in Tesco (the most popular supermarket) move every Christmas. Like 3 years ago it was Christmas eve that Tesco was the most chaotic, and then the next year the majority wanted to avoid the crowds so they all chosen the same idea to do it the day before Christmas eve. And then last year the majority thought it was a great idea to go at 2 o'clock in the morning on Christmas eve, and then I saw the results from everybody on Facebook in the later morning.....

Only very few people are sensible enough to actually see the pattern and just keep their Christmas food shopping the same time each year.

We're outliers but that doesn't matter to companies. It's more profitable to target the largest market and the largest market is made up by the majority of people. It doesn't matter if a small group of people behave differently and are statistical outliers in certain ways. That doesn't make the statistics any less useful for businesses. I don't think that way but billions of other people do and that's enough to drive sales up and down depending on the weather in spite of me.

Im not sure if it is necessarily an aspie/autistic trait, but I have never been one to follow crowd mentality or blindly follow authority.

With something like analysing sales patterns the whole thing is a bit trivial. But think about that famous experiment where one subject was ordered to electrocute the other with increasing intensity till the victim was for all they knew, dead. Still nearly everyone followed orders.

In the same way, humans follow orders and commit genocide and related atrocities.

I think the world is very finely balanced on a knife edge, if there were any less people who followed their own paths and conscience no matter what, rejecting authority. The world would become a dystopian, authoritarian hell, like that suggested by Orwell's famous quote about a boot stamping on a human face.

Oddly, I think those in the Autistic spectrum, although often seen to have problems with empathy. Play a massive role in preserving empathy/common care/love/freedom/innovation and all that is good in society.

Im not sure if it is necessarily an aspie/autistic trait, but I have never been one to follow crowd mentality or blindly follow authority.

Herman, I think that's very much an Aspie trail and a good one . In addition to the Milgram experiment on how people submit to authority figures, many other experiments show how people will seldom stand alone, even on pretty minor things, if other's disagree with them. Since we're so used to being different in our thinking, we braver.

As for the Milgram's experiment, I'd probably react the same way as a NT. I don't follow trends but I can be quite submissive to authority. I was a goodie-two-shoes growing up. There is a difference between following the herd and following the lead of an authority figure.