The Line Between Smart and Crazy
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
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How does herd mentality go wrong and lead to the madness of crowds? How can we harness it for the wisdom of crowds? Vsauce2 explores the fine line between group smart and group crazy.
The age of mass communication has brought with it mass psychogenic illness alongside opportunities to crowdsource solutions that improve the world. It's a delicate science we're trying to navigate. Are we smart enough to make use of our herd mentality or we will succumb to the madness of the crowd?
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I estimate there are 7000 jelly beans. Please send me the beans if I’m right. 2:31
200 is the average right?
3000 jelly beans
630 J beans.
477 jelly beans
" A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." ~Kay Men in Black quotes still stand strong.
bro i was thinking the exact same line
also reminded me of "1500 years ago, everybody 'knew' that we were at the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody 'knew' the earth was flat. 15 minutes ago, you 'knew' that we were alone on this planet. imagine what you'll know tomorrow."
@@possumsalad6614 Technically, due to our tragic inability to travel at FTL speeds, we are the center of the observable Universe.
The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them a recreation to play with burdens that would crush all others.
Nietzsche
@@HunterTracks only if you assume the human observer is what makes a center of the universe
His name is Kevin
A small benefit of being socially isolated, group stupidity has a difficult time reaching me.
(Didn’t expect this to reach so many people, neat)
on the other hand
isolation can stop other people from calling out the stupidity already inside
So does group wisdom.
This is a balancing act but you yourself must find a healthy medium. This video illustrates a very fascinating phenomenon of group madness however humans social isolation does the very same thing. Not interacting with people brings about madness in of itself. Coupled with the fact that you have connection to the internet like hundreds of other people that self-isolate, this seems to be one of the causes of the spread of harmful misinformation based on their own unfortunately delusional takes due to lack of interactivity or communal push back. These ideas become popular and are perpetuated online which leads to group insanity. Which in turn creates a Perpetual never-ending circle.
There's nothing wrong with socializing and there's nothing wrong with wanting to be alone but too much of either spectrum can lead to insanity. The crazy insane behavior of celebrities and influencers are a good example of too much socialisation and the withdrawn mentally damaged, delusional and sometimes outwardly violent hikikomori of Japan are a good example of prolonged self-isolation. It is always good to find balance to to remain not only wise but healthy.
I just also wanted to clarify that I don't mean to sound as if I'm calling you delusional. I was speaking in a more general sense that prolong isolation leads to delusion and mental decline in most cases. My apologies if I offend. Drink plenty of water and be well friend 🤗
@@JazmenCarolina I don't think extroversion nor introversion have any bearing on whether or not a person lacks critical thinking skills or has a tendency to violent acts.
When the US began, Congress was meant to consist of average people with normal jobs that only met a few times a year to discuss laws. Now it’s full time jobs where they spend all their time together and madness has ensued. Makes sense after watching this video.
They also just so "happen" to be mostly lawyers...
Ah, no. Congress was made up of land owners, which means the top of the economic ladder. Everyone else was considered to be peons. Only those who had "made their fortune" mattered.
Oh come on it was never meant for average people
I think the idea that the U.S. congress was intended to consist of average Joes is approximately correct for the House of Representatives, but not the Senate. The House was intended to represent the general population, and Senate was intended to represent the states' governments. Until the 17th Amendment was passed, senators were selected by state legislatures, not by popular vote.
If by "average people with normal jobs" you mean "white men that owned land (and probably slaves)" then yes. It was never meant for the average resident of the country.
And the US is 1000 times more complicated than it was a few centuries ago. We are no longer a backwards agricultural society.
"the IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters"
This I like.
Vsauce has definitely gone insane
Now we await the beginning of Jake's fruther insanity arc.
Nei nei.. this is vsauce2 so its plausible
This is the exact moment Walter White diagnosed Michael Stevens
Yay finally
Vsauce 2 has absolutely gone insane
Sometimes being an introvert is helpful. I can never be in the wrong crowd if I am not in a crowd.
"on the other hand
isolation can stop other people from calling out the stupidity already inside"
- Someone else in the comment section
I gotta agree with the reply, I honestly don't know if what I'm spouting to people, when I do talk I mean, is wisdom or isolation/horomone induced dillusions
As tempted as I am to agree with you, I can't help but feel that our being on the internet talking and listening to people probably negates that.
@@eyesofthecervino3366 Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts.
We are all in the middle of a massive “group crazy” phase right now.
I feel it
Thanks America.
@@TheDanteBoots Its not just america, its the entire world with the internet
Agreed
Yes but it’s not “a” there is more than one massive group crazy
At first I only read half the title and I thought it was going to be about average intelligence. I used to think most people were at least moderately capable and smart, and then I worked in retail. Oh my god, how do some of these people *function*
@Cheesers oh no, I'm not talking about retail worker abuse. I'm talking about just how fucking braindead most people are 90% of the time. I've had a businessman have ask me "do you have a restroom" to which I've responded "our bathroom was flooded so it is out of service sir, I'm sorry" and he asked "can I use it?" When blowing up balloons I had a lady come scream at me that "her child's balloon popped" and "we should give her a refund because it popped" like wtf? I once had a fairly regular customer at home improvement store I worked try to walk in our store maskless during the height of the pandemic sayjng "God told me I don't have to wear a mask," "Jesus didn't wear a mask so why should we," and "the only people who die from the 'china flu' are sinners." Fun fact: later that week we learned from another contractor that his mom caught COVID-19 after he visited her and she died. Like, you would think these things happened infrequently, but it was everyday multiple times a day. Hell, in that same store we made a GIANT poster at the door that said "no mask no entry, police will be called" (our manager had immunocompromised parents and we'd had contractors pull guns on us) and I remember one time when three separate sets of people who didn't know each other but arrived at our store a little after 5p all walked-up without masks. Like 20ish people in total stared straight at a stupidly neon sign that you physically can't miss unless you're staring at the ground or sky and flat-out ignored it. I just fuckin locked the door and pointed to the sign as several people cussed at me and 1 banged his fists at the glass.
@@cheesers2084 Exactly. Like jeez did this person and the other 18 bozos not watch the video???
@@cherriberri8373 bruh 🤣🤣🤣 this is hilarious. You're throwing shade at me because admitted to misreading the title of the video, meanwhile you misread BOTH his and my comments. Like, istg your brain has a single braincell and it's dinging around in your head like a Windows screensaver.
You don’t get a full picture of someone’s life after a simple retail-related interaction with them
I'm literally on lunch right now at work, but a lady spilled a massive soda, so I put down the wet floor sign and another lady saw me put the sign down, and proceeded to stroll her cart straight through the spill and get irritated smh... I can't wait to graduate college
“Do you ask me what you should regard as especially to be avoided? I say, crowds; for as yet you cannot trust yourself to them with safety. What do you think I mean? I mean that I come home more greedy, more ambitious, more voluptuous, and even more cruel and inhuman, - because I have been among human beings.”
- Seneca the Younger, on the effect of crowds at the Roman Coliseum
I seriously wonder though if some of these mass hysteria cases like in South Carolina are really hysteria and not companies just lying to protect against lawsuits and bad publicity.
I find the textile factory one fascinating because if that exact thing happened today and workers at a factory claimed to have been exposed to something, and the factory denied that it existed, I would believe the workers! We see examples *ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY* of impure drinking water passing inspections due to bribery and corruption. You can see videos of city councilmen being challenged to drink tap water and refusing, just minutes after swearing it's safe!
Social media sure has made this worse over the years.
Great presentation. I like how you didn't tie it to anything we've experienced recently thus allowing people to apply it as they will. It's an excellent defense of freedom of speech. There have been many times in history when the sole individual's point of view was viewed as insane, ignorant and even evil... but they were right and the pathway out of madness.
A French researcher recently has discussed something called "Mass Formation". Extremely interesting and enlightening.
Another good reason why elections must be secret. When everyone votes for themselves, it is the wisdom of the crowd, but when people are forced to vote publicly, it devolves into the madness of the crowd.
Vote by mail partially made elections more secretive.
Which is how we elected 2 angry old men in a row to the White House. Sigh.
@@ArkmageEDM well there are a lot of other reasons why we aren't getting candidates that people want. mainly the interest of the two parties and their donors
~918 jelly beans.
Assuming 4.5” diameter, 5.75” height, glass 0.375” and some guesstimating on how much is in the neck. Also, you could have tricked us with some sort of backer since we didn’t see the whole jar.
1:58 This actually happened with Deltarune theorizing. At first everyone had a unique take on what Spamton was saying in a garbled and distorted voice line. At the start the environment was *extremely* low information, but as time went on, better isolation techniques came out. But what ended up happening is that people organized in discords to talk about what they thought and because the most dedicated players were the ones who got in earlier, outdated information from respected members clobbered any new information that was coming in. It was so bad that even with the perfect voice line being released officially with canon hints being given by the creator of the song, people were still being gaslit by the outdated information and ended up *convinced* that complete nonsense was accurate, and anyone who deviated from that established norm would be socially outcast, thus preventing the truth from ever being converged upon. This is exemplified by the line: "Until your heart goes RED" being misheard as "Until your heart gets all ripped up" Like, it's not even close syllable-wise and is complete nonsense in the context of the story, but because it got in early, it stuck.
Are there any studies of this in the field of psychology or anything else? Because it sounds fascinating.
7:18 the "Informational Domino Effect" is exactly the same thing which has happened to the tech industry with the mass layoffs; tech companies see other tech companies laying off employees, and so they conduct business conservatively. This has the same domino effect.
Nice video, keep up the great work!
There's definitely some relevancy to be found in the "witch hunts" as well as some new aspects to the mass hysteria and crowd madness. Not only was it mostly memetic (I don't think it's really that much of a contention that witches didn't actually exist the way the hysteria claimed) but it was also extremely drawn out and distributed over a huge area.
I'm really curious how neuridiversity plays into this and if grups of neurodivergent people are more or less likely to exhibit such behaviour.
"neurodiversity" my thoughts,
It doesn't matter if idiot or savant , empath or psychotic, timid or daredevil,
it is
diversity and tolerance that is needed to resist mob mentality,
because the differences are a force to resist the convergence of mind that a mob is.
It is required for human survival.
Depends on how they are neurodivergent I guess. They might be more or less capable of making social connections, which is part of the cause of these delusions.
probably less, if only because we blurt out stuff that other people don't like or agree with and we don't even know why what we said was "wrong". But, if you get a bunch of neurodivergents together in a club, they will probably have all the same logical fallacies and incorrect assumptions as neurotypicals. So, as long as we don't live in overprotective bubbles, and converse and respect humans from different cultures and backgrounds, we can still get along alright. (don't join any cults)
@@bramvanduijn8086 how neurodivergent and what kind of
neurodiversity is needed for the collective wisdom. Different environments need different ones to come forward. A pandemic needs different behaviour to an attack by barbarians but a society needs to survive through both.
One of the best videos on this channel so far. I saved it to my "Worth watching again" list. Great job!
Love your shows. You only explained the problem. You didn't say how I can be part of the wisdom and avoid the madness.
that shouldn’t be too hard for you to figure out, should it
He kinda did, and didn't need to at the same time since its a macro problem not a personal one - you both are and are not dumb and smart at all times, it all depends on the context of the question.
Main point: People are dumb when local group pressure is present, so when trying to make good major decisions, you're better off getting secondary opinions of isolated, random people in large numbers (think survey level)
If you ask a group of friends a question and your all sitting around a table, all the decisions made will be biased towards the groups overarching mindset - not necessarily good
In contrast if you had each person give their opinion individually, (and could guarantee no-one would find out any one else's opinion, and they trust that they can give you a legit opinion without judgment (by ballot maybe?)) then you'd get a much more accurate\true response.
In this case its still small scale so everyone would still be biased further by any shared upbringing, local regional mindsets etc, but it would be better than the initial room example.
And the bigger you go the 'smarter' the response you'd get, so the most accurate information would come from entire populations, all being incentivized to reply anonymously.
This is why jury duty in Australia is picked from a random subset of the local population and is legally mandated for instance - you'll get a more accurate 'wise' opinion if your Jury composed of random people who have no relation to each other, as they are less likely to feel social pressures to agree with each other than, say, if were to only ask people that chose to sign up for it, or people that lived in the same area etc.
End of the day its a logistics problem, a bit of a catch 22, and not one you can really put into practice in any real way, unless you feel like polling every decision you want to make (and not via youtube\twitter
eddit etc, cos then the only respondents will be a part of the hivemind), not to mention a decision would take way longer than is viable for day to day living.
No one is immune.
He did
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
― Marcus Aurelius
In my opinion, madness (in the context of this video) is inevitable, but recovery from it, and the collective impact it has/would have, is largely determined by a willingness to confront your own biases that drove you to the madness. The problem is that this requires a lot of energy and causes a lot of stress due to cognitive dissonance, and as such I feel it is important to never shame a person for the beliefs they hold, even if we condemn or shame the belief itself.
Or as it was said in a book I don't believe in: "Hate the sin, not the sinner"
I am definitely either smart or crazy, probably a combination of the two, potentially both.
Makes it seem like almost a good thing to be a “weirdo” so to speak. It is super normal for people to have and desire social relationships and groups. Not having that desire basically makes you immune to mass delusions I suppose.
Not being social just changes it from an external echo chamber to an internal one. The only clear advantage to not being social: your madness doesn't contribute to anyone else's. Unfortunately, that advantage doesn't work out for you.
but you also have major health problems. no joke, chronic loneliness is actually worse for your body than smoking a back of cigarettes
@@wren_.That's only if you feel worse with loneliness some people just prefer being alone because they like it and unlike the off chance exceptions of being completely depressed and alone there's still a higher majority that maintain a balance of being alone and social interactions even if they're quieter than most people. Most often than not quiet people are quiet because they can keep themselves entertained in their head although some will have social anxiety or social awkwardness that overlap between it that's still relatively healthy state contrasting with depression.
@@xClairy lonely≠alone, you can not talk to anyone for years at a time and never feel lonely, or you can be voted prom queen and feel like the loneliest person in the world. loneliness is subjective, and also a bodily function like hunger or thirst.
@@wren_. Mhmm seems like my comprehension skills died but you make a good point
"Can I play with Madness?"
He said; "You're blind, too blind too see."
I think there is a bit more complexity on the dust bowl farmers.
What an excellent video! My guess on the jar was 197. Who knows; am I part of the crowd of wisdom or madness…or both like you said. I hope this video reaches as many possible. God knows I’ve learned from it. Take care and keep doing what you’re doing with energy. All of it is needed if we want to continue onward to the stars and beyond in one piece.
In order to stay sane in such a mad world, one must be at least a little bit insane - Sumgui
Thanks Kevin. You are definitely part of the wisdom
You can't be sane without knowing you're at least a little bit mad. We're all a little bit mad, after all. Knowing which parts of you are the mad ones makes it easier to get a grip on yourself and the world around you.
It’s amazing how much research you did to make this video
I wonder how my anti-5G friends are going, I should reach out to them sometime via faster internet speeds.
Not if you get Alzheimer's disease :)
@@Kabup2 5G has no links to any diseases at all.
What a timely and personally helpful video. I was raised in a cult and I left at 23, serving time alone. It's difficult for me to see the ways in which I still do this but the principles talked about here help clarify how to watch out for that
When will there be talk of the calmness of crowds?
existencial dreads delivered in a very sensible and informative video, Just like I love them. And as always, Awesome!
Just another way to say that human brains prefer categorization over accuracy. Groups don't form opinions because of peer pressure, but bc of the digestibility of the information they're given. Info that is easy to categorize will influence the interpretation of info that isn't. Which is how one person can sway a mob - by presenting their view in an easily categorized fashion
This makes me think of 2020. I don't know who were the wisdom and who were the madness.
Wow. Until reading your comment, it hadn't really occurred to me that the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the George Floyd protests, and the controversy surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election all occurred within the span of a year. What a (literally) crazy year.
After all, Paracelsus' method might have worked, at least because of the placebo effect.
I remember my grandmother telling me "there it flies" when I had accidentally hurt myself.
An alien once said wisely: Be yourself, no matter what they say.
I ain't there in the middle, I'm in a super position of both sides
Definitely crazy
You've ruined it
I love that part in adventure time.
Can I meet these minds.
Here are the minds.
"The path of wisdom is often guided by madness, while the path of madness is often constricted by wisdom"
TL:DC What's wisdom is often wrongfully interpreted as madness from the feeble minded, while madness is a state of mind that we daily engage in unknowingly
Source: Me
The red head kid from magic school bus turned himself orange because he ate to many chips. Or what ever that snack was.
I think there might be group wisdom/madness plateaus, where the uniqueness between each person in the group cannot extend the wisdom/madness beyond a certain point.
🤓 I think I realize the difference between bad and good crowds I'm in because I don't feel like I'm on any crowds that make me feel worse but it's true that usually the most liked commend is usually opposite of fact and just a fun idea but I'm not one of them how likes it. For exp. I don't use social media outside youtube or twitch because I think those are bad growds, there is no benefit for your confidence and mental health using them. RUclips and Twitch don't get personal, you don't know how I'm so I don't take anything personally and that makes the difference.
Partially correct, since opinions in the videos or comments in Tweeter and RUclips can have a effect in your perception of reality, throwing your behavior to better or worse. The same effect TV does, like in the Covid's pandemic, letting everyone in panic.
This was a really good approach to tackling misinformation, imo. Instead of attacking people and ultimately driving us away, you teach us how the spread of misinformation happens, and allow us to think for ourselves to determine what we may be wrong about.
But we all know what this is really about. There’s been a lot of misinformation spreading on social media lately. I’m not saying anyone is dumb for falling for the lies, but the new Mario movie was probably the best movie of all time. As soon as we can all get on the same page about that, the sooner we can move forward.
I don't need a crowd for insanity, my brain grew schizophrenia all on its own.
It would seem that the majority of the danger of crowds mentioned in this video comes with misplaced trust. We hear an idea and we trust who it came from (often there is some degree of social pressure to do so), even though we don't have strong evidence that that idea is true. We often don't even strongly weigh how likely alternative explanations are, let alone actually go out and do real investigation into the matter.
For permanent truths this gradually sorts itself out. The truth rises to the top. But for truths that are only useful in the moment (like much of politics), it doesn't matter if the actual truth becomes common knowledge in 20 years. What matters is the now, and that sorting function is rather slow.
Now in the age of the internet, we are bombarded by even more untrue information. While we have more ability to investigate cheaply with the internet, but we also have to deal with even more false theories flying around. It's a double edged sword, and unfortunately, many (most?) of us are experiencing the wrong end of it more than the right one.
So, here's another theory to throw on the pile. ;)
I beg your pardon, but I am at least as far as the A. The blue one.
Good lord, you are too real. It's hard for me to listen to this, but I feel like I need to.
That's why Wikipedia articles can be so awesome in certain entries. A whole lot of collaborative independent minds working together.
I'm disappointed to admit it, but unfortunately I am neither part of the wisdom or the madness of the crowd - I'm utterly alone.
the internet has devolved my brain so much that i have snorted the line
One of the best chanels on yt. Came back and shot to the top immediately🔥
there are 2 jellybeans btw
actually, i'm pretty much at "A"
Nope more to the right, 1 after y
It would take a 5-hour video to do this topic any justice
Im part of the wisdom, my proof, as time passes everything I was told I was crazy for believing, has all turned out to be true and is just known as fact at this point.
I haven't really noticed a lot of previously unbelievable ideas suddenly being accepted by the mainstream as facts so colour me skeptical.
The shameless plug at 8:15 had me rolling 💀💀💀
900 jellybeans although you never rotated the jar to let us know whether it’s cilindrical or squircle
2:25 the volume of a cylinder is the radius squared times the height times pie
there is 5-6 pieces in the radius and around 21 on height
1649 to 2375 pieces give or take a few pieces
My first guess was about 2000, which stands directly in the middle of your estimated guess🤔
This is the appropriate channel for this topic.
Guys, imma level with you here. Everyone tells me I’m part of the wisdom all the time, but let’s be real. I’m definitely part of the madness.
That statement within the context of this video is my evidence.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
I didn't know I needed this today but I did. Thank you.
The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.
Terry Pratchett
I guess 1628 jelly beans are in the jar
watching the end of the video while my family argues downstairs is just too personal
"NOTHING CAUSES THIS." (re school screaming)
I dunno, do you remember school? Sounds like they're just the only ones who get some release.
Yeah, same as in the factory: Stress is a mayor factor.
Tightly coupled system, with high stress, and too large numbers.
The biggest question after watching this is why @10:03 the yellow rubber? guy is in green square while other ones got their own colors? Why?
Absolutely amazing video!
This is something I "intuitively" had known throughout my life.
I had always supported individual decisions, especially in important matters, such as politics / voting when I was having a discussion with friends of mine.
This video is a great wisdom for those who don't know the importance of unaffected option of the individuals, inside of the masses!
You can draw a funny conclusion from this; "A perceivable mass only becomes a mass when there is interconnection and reaction between atoms / particles". That's why my suggestion is to be golden, to be an individual and most of all, yourself!
P.S: *Consistency*.
"Its all in the mind"
I wanna be both crazy and smart,to be unbound,yet powerfull. Mentaly at least.
My friend's dad's 'group' believes demons are on the earth, and bad things that happen are caused by them....
I remember learning about Mob Psychology from The Vile Village
5:02 uh oh my social anxiety didnt like that
There is a fine line between genius and crazy. I like to use this line as a jumping rope.
2:23
there are at least 9 jelly beans in the jar!
or something close to 624
Part of the madness - definitely.
Discernment is rarer than the most precious metals/gemstones.
There are at least 285 jelly beans in that jar
I think the topic of government is really interesting here! It's easy to have a crowd guess the weight of a bull, but politics is really complex with lots of interacting parts. You can't have every person in the crowd invent a political system and take the average one. Although I do believe in some kind of lottocracy, I frankly don't know if it would make governance much better. Might even be worse
This is one of your best video
With all this in mind, court room jury members should give their verdict individually and not as a group in order to get the most accurate and fair outcome.
I am pretty sure i am two step into the crazy camp. I am not crazy sure, but i do have some seizure attack once in awhile and if not that, it's usually have my emotion uncontrolled as i laugh cry and angry at the same time.
how many jellybeans was in the jar? i put the number "about 300~" in my head and now i have to know
answer me smartypants >:(
Thumbnail: "You are here"
Me: "No, I'm the A"
Noticed the blue/red lights in each shoulder of the frame? Am I the only one reminded of the matrix film?
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it Fate.”
-Carl Jung
The idea that I would be part of the madness of the crowd is absolutely preposterous.
i love this video. thank you vsauce for years of boiling off the volume and leaving pure content.
Loved this video! One of the best I've seen on this channel! (And I've seen quite some)
Top quality, as always!
What I got from this video is that I need to start drinking silver
Hey did anyone else watch Sabine's video about crowed intelligence?
I think a good example of this is when I go to church and when I go to a comic con.
At church most people think very highly alike on EVERYTHING, and expect high levels of conformity. When I go to a con, while we all have similar interests, there is not a demand or expectancy for conformity. You like what you like, I like what I like, we talk and argue and debate, and have a great time and enjoy ourselves.