How can the popularity of Elvis help us understand the importance of thinking for ourselves?
Subject: Ad Populum Fallacy
Event: Elvis’ album “50,000,000 ELVIS FANS CAN’T BE WRONG released, 1959
Which one of the three lines marked A, B, and C matches the length of the line in the box below?
The answer to the problem is obviously C. How then, did psychologist Solomon Asch get subjects in an experiment to select B as the correct answer?
He did it using the same appeal that advertisers use to catch your attention and to make you feel like you need to have what everybody else has. Marketers call it the bandwagon technique; psychologists call it social proof or groupthink; logisticians call it the ad populum fallacy. When they were alone, Asch’s subjects selected the correct answer, C; when other people were in the room, however, and when those people gave the wrong answer, individuals succumbed to peer pressure, conforming to the group rather than standing apart.
On this day in 1959, the second album of Elvis’ gold records was released. Featured prominently in all caps at the top of the album was the boast “50,000,000 ELVIS FANS CAN’T BE WRONG.”
It’s one of the oldest appeals there is: “Everybody’s doing it; therefore, it must be right.” It makes perfect sense that it “feels” right to do the popular thing, to give in to the herd instinct. After all, a big reason that our ancestors survived long enough to have offspring is, in part, because they stayed with and followed the group. It’s our default. If you’re walking down the street and you see one person looking up in the sky, you might not stop and look up; however, what if you were walking down the street and you saw four people looking up? Would you even think about it, or would you instinctively look up?
Feeling right and being right, however, are different. Just because popular opinion favors one side, does not make it right. As the English writer W. Somerset Maugham said, “If fifty million people say something foolish, it is still foolish.” There was a time when popular opinion favored slavery. Likewise there was a time when the majority believed the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. This is why we need science because it is a truth-seeking, reality based system that works against our tribal instinct toward groupthink.
Elvis’ music really was pretty good, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a fan. Think for yourself, and remain skeptical.
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: How did the Asch experiment show the true nature of the ad populum fallacy?
Challenge -Thinking For Yourself: Do some research on quotations on the topic of “thinking for yourself” or “independent thinking.” When you find a quotation that you think shows real insight, write it down, and explain why you think it is insightful.
Sources:
1-Carroll, Robert Todd. “Ad Populum Fallacy.” The Skeptic’s Dictionary. 1994.
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