"But everyone says so!"

Poki

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    "But everyone says so! Therefore it must be true!"

    Before you judge something/agree with everybody else, you need stop and think a little. The majority could be wrong. A lot of people seem to forget that.

    Why do most people side with the majority without looking into the problem by themselves first?
    Are you like that? Explain why you are/are not.

    Not deep enough for D&D, so I'm leaving it here.
     
    Most people side with the majority, because they usually think the majority is always right, when it's actually the complete opposite, according to the internet community. I tend to switch sides often depending on the situation and number of evidence given to make their opinions legit. I do not wish to part of a group that fails to do any research on certain subjects but still try to shove their opinions down on everyone's throats, which I happen to see at the Pokémon subforums, Video Games section, and D&D section.
     
    Pinkie-Dawn said:
    Most people side with the majority, because they usually think the majority is always right, when it's actually the complete opposite, according to the internet community. I tend to switch sides often depending on the situation and number of evidence given to make their opinions legit. I do not wish to part of a group that fails to do any research on certain subjects but still try to shove their opinions down on everyone's throats, which I happen to see at the Pokémon subforums, Video Games section, and D&D section.
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    *cough* Religion *cough*

    Ah, D&D. Always full of BS. :')
     
    Pinkie-Dawn said:
    I do not wish to part of a group that fails to do any research on certain subjects but still try to shove their opinions down on everyone's throats, which I happen to see at the Pokémon subforums, Video Games section, and D&D section.
    Click to expand...

    Poki said:
    Ah, D&D. Always full of BS. :')
    Click to expand...

    You guys should keep in mind that you're talking about real people here, not emotionless robots that don't care whether or not you insult them out of the blue for no reason. :/

    One of the biggest issues with following the majority is that no one ever knows the real majority; they only know the majority of the people who expressed an opinion. It's one of the biggest flaws in sociological studies, and it's a common problem in online reviews too; only the very bad and the very good are going to go out of their way to leave a review, so if you took the majority from online reviews you're not taking the majority of people that went to that place.

    Thus the idea of majority opinion is, most of the time, completely meaningless and really shouldn't be taken into consideration. There's an exception, however, for scientific consensus; peer-reviewed science is able to be replicated and often is more complex than the average person could handle. I don't need to send my own probe to the sun to believe what science tells me it's made of.
     
    Oryx said:
    One of the biggest issues with following the majority is that no one ever knows the real majority; they only know the majority of the people who expressed an opinion. It's one of the biggest flaws in sociological studies, and it's a common problem in online reviews too; only the very bad and the very good are going to go out of their way to leave a review, so if you took the majority from online reviews you're not taking the majority of people that went to that place.
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    This is exactly how I feel about it as well.

    I only express my opinion on things - outside of this forum - if I am completely opposed to something, or all for. If there's a like option available, I'll just like it more often than not, but that's usually the end of it for me. I do my best, before forming an opinion, to consider all the possible sides. Maybe that's why I'm so indecisive. I over-examine the what ifs and buts more than I really should.
     
    Genuinely, I think I've never once said that in my life, nor have believed someone who did.
     
    Why do most people side with the majority without looking into the problem by themselves first?

    Because most people believe in what society tells them. This is very bad, because society has a standard of everything -- a standard of beauty, a standard of intelligence, etc. and this leads a lot of people to believe they are ugly, stupid, or whatever when the truth is everyone is beautiful and intelligent in his/her own way ;)

    And peer pressure. People just want to "fit in" so they follow whatever's trending, like YOLO.

    Are you like that? Explain why you are/are not.

    I don't care what society thinks of me. I am who I am, and I'm not here to compete with or to be better than others, but to be the best me I am.

    Dr. Seuss said:
    "You are you and that is true, there's no one in the world who's you-er than you."
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    People generally side with a majority because there's more backup as opposed to the minority. If two groups of people are arguing, one group a lone person, the other a group of five, it'll be harder to side with the loner because only they would back you up, as opposed to the five others you'll get from the other group. Siding with a majority is a safe choice, but it's not always right.

    I'm not like that. The only time I'm sided with a majority is if the majority coincidentally believes what I believe, which rarely happens.
     
    I decide over what I think is true, if I have no knowledge about it at all I'll do research before deciding. If I'm wrong who cares? Everyone makes a mistake at some point in life.
     
    Going with the crowd... Not the thing I do. I usually don't try to go with the crowd or what the crowd believes because I would prefer to access the situation first. Sometimes the crowd is right, sometimes not. If everyone is doing it, that doesn't mean I'll do it.

    I will hav to disagree with most of you here. Religion and following the crowd usually don't go together. The majority believe in the Big Bang. If it says a fact in a museum, WOW!, it must be true! WOW! If most scientists believe it, it must be true! No. Not neccessarily. Everyone used to think the world was flat. It was wrong. Our scientists will be wrong again.
     
    BadPokemon said:
    Going with the crowd... Not the thing I do. I usually don't try to go with the crowd or what the crowd believes because I would prefer to access the situation first. Sometimes the crowd is right, sometimes not. If everyone is doing it, that doesn't mean I'll do it.

    I will hav to disagree with most of you here. Religion and following the crowd usually don't go together. The majority believe in the Big Bang. If it says a fact in a museum, WOW!, it must be true! WOW! If most scientists believe it, it must be true! No. Not neccessarily. Everyone used to think the world was flat. It was wrong. Our scientists will be wrong again.
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    Religion is literally massive crowds of people affirming that they all believe in the exact same thing, complete with encouraging children too young to decide for themselves to affirm the same things through church attendance and in many cases rites performed on them when they're too young to consent.

    If everyone in a religion was free to interpret the religion in the way they feel is right and was actually old enough when they decided to join that they could make a reasoned decision, it might not be a "following the crowd" decision. But that's not the case.
     
    Haha, screw taking sides, I side with myself. Who cares about whether other people's opinions are considered the right one for the majority, I decide which one I consider the correct thing.

    Basically, I don't get influenced on how the majority thinks and side on whatever I think is correct.
     
    I expect most anyone on this site would tell you they are minority thinkers. Yet, while a minority of all people frequent TPC, but there are still majority opinions within the community. And then each clique within the community has its own prevailing opinion. People seek to band together in unanimity even down to the one-to-one level. Of course, why wouldn't you want to? No one does well for living with hostility. We want to live in harmony, and this is really the simplest way to go about it.

    So, am I this way? If my observation of it as a matter of human social nature is true, I must be.
     
    Last edited:
    Poki said:
    "But everyone says so! Therefore it must be true!"

    Before you judge something/agree with everybody else, you need stop and think a little. The majority could be wrong. A lot of people seem to forget that.

    Why do most people side with the majority without looking into the problem by themselves first?
    Are you like that? Explain why you are/are not.

    Not deep enough for D&D, so I'm leaving it here.
    Click to expand...

    Yup. Some people need to be more open-mided.
     
    I'm generally too neutral to side with anyone, but if I did have to pick a side, I'd find some facts, then join the debate.
    I rarely go with the majority, for all we know they probably jumped the bandwagon. People side with the majority due to influence, they get pulled into their ideas by what they say, and in turn believe what they have said and join their side. Hitler did it, so do most people on the net who try to argue their point.
     
    Oryx said:
    Religion is literally massive crowds of people affirming that they all believe in the exact same thing, complete with encouraging children too young to decide for themselves to affirm the same things through church attendance and in many cases rites performed on them when they're too young to consent.

    If everyone in a religion was free to interpret the religion in the way they feel is right and was actually old enough when they decided to join that they could make a reasoned decision, it might not be a "following the crowd" decision. But that's not the case.
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    I think some religions differ. I won't be naming specific ones, but some will require you to, some will kill you if you don't (it's loosened in modern times, thankfully), and some give you the choice. Yes, your choice is influenced by others. It's ultimately the persons decision. It's encouraged, but that goes with just about everything. Not just religion.
     
    BadPokemon said:
    I think some religions differ. I won't be naming specific ones, but some will require you to, some will kill you if you don't (it's loosened in modern times, thankfully), and some give you the choice. Yes, your choice is influenced by others. It's ultimately the persons decision. It's encouraged, but that goes with just about everything. Not just religion.
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    Well, the same can be said for science and general social pressure such as standards of beauty. This isn't a thread about why you do things that will cause you death if you don't, it's why someone would follow a crowd. You're moving the goalposts; religion is just as much following a crowd as only listening to pop music, regardless of whether or not you're capable of making another decision.

    I know you're very tie to your religion so to hear it described as a social pressure like anything else makes you want to jump to defend it, but it is in reality another social pressure. You don't have to threaten death or prohibit different decisions for it to be a pressure from a crowd.
     
    I think it's rational that people decide to go with the crowd. After all, who has the time to think of things for themselves? People have to get on with life and it takes a lot of time to sit things down and think things through. If it works for most people, it might just work for you.

    People comparing themselves with a majority is just a dynamic between wanting to feel accepted and wanting to feel unique. Some people disagree with the majority, no matter how ludicrous their perspective may be, just to feel solace in disagreement. Everybody wants to be special. Our self-esteem is in a way predicated on how much of a special snowflake we are.

    Besides, most people have beliefs that are not justified. Just because one believes something that is readily accepted does not mean that they are any better than a person who believes something that isn't. What is meaningful to me is whether they can justify it.

    It is easy to shop for beliefs - freedom and the internet means they are plentiful - but it takes time and effort to consider and digest them.
     
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