Psychologyspeaking topic
Deindividuation: why do people in a crowd, or behind a mask, do things they would never do alone? Does anonymity loosen our moral brakes?
— Zimbardo & Le Bon, deindividuation
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The foot-in-the-door technique: once we agree to a small request, why are we more likely to say yes to a bigger one? How does our wish to appear consistent get used against us?
- The Zeigarnik effect: waiters remember the unpaid bills and forget them the moment they're settled. Why does an unfinished relationship or an unsaid sentence take up so much more space in the mind than anything completed?
- Hedonic adaptation: the new phone, the new home, the new relationship... every joy becomes our new normal within months. If no choice makes us permanently happy, what is choosing even for?
- The jam experiment: shoppers stopped to browse a display of 24 jams, but a display of just 6 sold ten times more. Why does abundance leave us unable to buy at all?
- The bystander effect: if someone faints in a crowded place, why does nobody move, when the same person would rush to help if they were the only witness? Why do crowds make us passive?