Ordinary people; extraordinary obedience

  
  Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority" (Milgram, 1974) 

   Milgram's experiment attempts to explain why reasonable people do unreasonable, irrational things when instructed by an authority. Would we, ordinary people, doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on our part, kill thousands of people in a war situation? Especially if prodded by a charismatic leader? Milgram says yes, there is a good chance that we'll end up doing things beyond our imagination if ordered by someone in authority.  

  Although obedience to authority is a watered down answer to how leaders managed to persuade followers to perform heinous crimes without an iota of guilt, the hard question remains why would someone consider such leaders as an authority? How did such leaders manage to prevent an internal uprising among educated individuals?

 A German movie, The wave has some interesting answers to questions on authority and autocratic leadership. Although the leader is the initiator of a movement, the followers are the ones who keeps it alive, they are the ones who make the thought of a leader into a full fledged movement. 

  Just like the greed of the leader, the followers become addicted to the movement, they believe that the movement is bigger than them, and they begin to identify themselves as a part of an elite group focused on a unique goal. In the process, they lose their own identity - they are thinking for the group - they are more worried about the so-called greater good than themselves.  

   In fact, we don't have to travel back to the past. There is no dearth of charismatic leaders’ closer home, occupying the front pages of national newspapers and primetime hours of the TRP hungry TV channels. How did they achieve such strong followers even while their leadership style is far from the ideals of democracy? 

  Will we do it again if there is another audacious authority? You mock me; you think such audacious authorities are a thing of the past. Wait for a moment, think about this. 

  History is full of repetitions, full of charismatic leaders, who thought they were entitled to everything, who thought greed was natural, but none of them lived forever, they fell for their own charm. They may be long dead but their crimes still lives in the pages of history books; some printed, some never printed. Some proven, some unproven. 

   The obedience to authority, unswerving obedience to authority has stood the test of time, and nothing has happened in the recent past to indicate a different future. 

Why eat curd and sugar before exams and why you should take your food on time?

    Exams are perhaps the most stressful periods in the life of a student. And many of us get nightmares or that jittery feeling of blank mind far too often as the exam date approach. In one of my earlier posts, I had mentioned that self-control is an exhaustible resource, and therefore we can assume that there is scope for replenishing it.

  As the exam nears, we tend to use up immense amount of self-control mainly by doing things that we don’t like: avoid watching TV, restrain from going out, and sit through hoards of unending text book pages. By doing things that we really don't want, we deplete our self-control, and as the self-control depletes, three things happen:

   We become irritable, prone to quick peripheral decisions, and begin to act with reduced perseverance. 

  In short, we tend to give up far too easily, something we don’t want when attempting a tough math exam. Imagine how unfortunate it is to give up just one step before the correct answer, like the proverbial gold digger who gave up digging one foot away from fortune.

  

 A way to replenish our self-control is the need of the hour, and how wonderful it must be to have a quick burst of self-control? What if I say a glass of sweetened water or sweetened curd does just that? Hard to believe? What if it is backed up by scientific evidence?

   To find a way to replenish self-control, the researchers(1) had to find out a way to determine the chemical substance that depleted with decrease in self-control. They found out that the substance, and it turned to be glucose. 

 How did they arrive at this conclusion?

  The difference in levels of glucose before and after various self-control experiments pointed in the same direction, a definite depletion in the level of glucose.

  A simple experiment of forcing someone to make a chain of tough decisions resulted in high glucose depletion compared to relatively lower glucose depletion from someone making a chain of simple decisions. Making tough decisions, decisions that has clear consequences, can deplete self-control considerably; for we use up a lot of self-control when we take tough decisions. 

  No wonder we become irritable and unsympathetic after a long day of small and big decisions at office, we have used too much of self-control, and our glucose levels are so low that we bark at the first person on our way home, and that partly explains why we find it difficult to divide work and home.There is not enough energy to remain polite and civil, a mark of self-control. What we need to avoid altercation at home is a just bite of glucose. 

What does sweetened drink do to your brain and body?

    It turns out that a quick increase in sugar levels in a human body not only increases the energy levels, but increases the willpower as well - the ability of conscious control. With increased sugar levels, we become less irritable, and persevere more – an ideal mindset in an exam hall. 

  What happens when you take decisions on empty stomach?

   At empty stomach, the glucose levels are low and any intent of self-control is already out of the bloodstream, it makes sense to defer a big decision till a glass of sweetened water pushes up the glucose levels.

  We can’t possibly take sugar every hour of the day, in fact that can become a health hazard. Sugar intake can pump up energy levels quickly, but consistent protein intake can do the same job in a healthier way. A regular protein diet helps to curb the urge to take that quick bite of chocolate.

Enough of research, What do all these mean to me?

   It simply means that you should take your food on time, four meals a day no matter what. (which I’m trying hard to follow)  This will ensure that your self-control is at peak, and you don’t splurge your money or time on things that you will regret.

More to follow on self-control and why you didn't stick with your new year resolution (If at all you haven't given up on taking new year resolutions)

Researchers(1): Roy.F. Baumeister and fellow researchers 

What you didn’t know about self-control…

                       

  Have you ever felt that impulse to indulge in an ice cream when you are on diet? How long did you go without that ice cream? And I bet you had that coveted ice cream in the end. The self-control didn’t work for long, did it?

  People who are asked to make tough choices - such as choosing among many job offers, often find it difficult to focus on puzzles immediately after making that tough decision. Quite obvious, you would say, what’s so new about that? We are aware that our sense of equilibrium is at its lowest point just after a stressful event. But that’s not the reason why people fail to solve puzzles after a stressful event - they gave up too quickly, they did not try enough, they just lost their self-control.

  In an experiment^* conducted by researchers, two similar groups were picked as volunteers. Without revealing anything about the experiment, they were starved for five straight hours. The researchers then placed radish and freshly baked chocolate-chip in front of them. One group was asked to eat the radish, and only the radish, let’s call them the Radish group. The other group was not given any specific instructions; they were free to eat the radishes and the chocolate-chips, the Chocolate-chip group.

 A few hours later, all the volunteers were individually asked to solve an unsolvable puzzle, just that they did not know that it was unsolvable at that time. What do you expect to happen? The members of the Radish group lost their cool too quickly, they gave up immediately, and they were clearly agitated and displayed aggressive emotions. On the other hand, the Chocolate-chip group spent a little more time trying to solve the unsolvable puzzle, more importantly, they were found in a much more relaxed mood.

   What can we infer from this very interesting experiment? That human beings lose their cool when deprived of freshly baked chocolate chips? To some extent that is true, the Radish group had exhausted their self-control by using up all the self-control to avoid eating the tempting chocolate-chips. By the time the puzzles were given to them, they were mentally exhausted, and they had no intention of exercising high chemical consuming parts of their brain. The Chocolate-chip group,though starved for five hours, were in a better frame of mind, for they didn’t have to endure the urge to pick up the chocolate-chips.

  Next time you use up too much of self-control, remember that you are possibly entering a stressful zone because Self-control is an exhaustible resource. That doesn’t mean that you should never employ self-control, but do it as you would with spices, in moderation. And remember awareness is the first step to a clear and a calm mind.

 Reference: Chip Heath and Dan Heath: 

                    ISBN 978-0-385-52875-7