"Cognitive Dissonance" & "Be Wrong or Be Alone."
I was at Stratton Grammar School,
Biggleswade, in the 3rd or 4th year, I can't
remember. It was summer and our English teacher and form master, E.
A. Armitage, was late for the first lesson of a hot afternoon.
Someone in the class had the bright idea that we should go away (run
away?) and relax under some trees on the other side of the playing
fields. The trees were 300 meters away from the classroom. Somehow we
pursuaded ourselves that it was a good idea. All but one of us went,
leaving the classroom nearly empty.
When we got to the trees, we lay down,
started chatting away while looking up through the branches at the
blue sky. It was only about 10 minutes before someone said:
"Oh-oh, Armi's seen us and he's
coming over."
And we could see, just by his stride,
that he was as angry as hell. His shouted questions come back to me
now. What did you think you lot were doing!!?!! How did you think
we'd get away with it!!?!!
We had no reply of course.
I can't remember how we were punished,
but we were.
This incident illustrates two ideas in
"Wilful Blindness" by Magaret Heffernan.
Cognitive Dissonance: Holding two
contradictory ideas in our minds at the same time. Somehow we
thought we could abandon the classroom and it would be ok. And we
knew it would not be ok, because it was strictly not allowed by the
rules. And most of us held those two ideas in our minds at the same
time.
But maybe it was also a bit of Be Wrong
or Be Alone. We know the group is wrong. But the need to belong to
the group is more powerful than wanting to be right. The one
student who stayed in the classroom was right, but he was
alone.
What would happen if all my friends were true believers in homeopathy as a cure for cancer and I wasn't? If I got cancer, would I follow their advice so I would not be alone? I hope not.
What would happen if all my friends were true believers in homeopathy as a cure for cancer and I wasn't? If I got cancer, would I follow their advice so I would not be alone? I hope not.
Anyway, here are some of us in front of our
classroom, on a different, happier day, 1977 I think:
Picture brings back memories. I have numerous pictures taken from this era, probably developed in the dark room set up in Mr Handscombe's science lab. It was the only thing in art they let me do that was interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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