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.
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.
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.
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."
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
When I negate or go against someone's beliefs, like Flat Earth or something else dumb, in the back of my mind I tend to have a worrying thought. This thought goes along the lines of, "Man, I really hope I don't believe something else equally dumb and don't realize it." I probably do, but I hate that I don't know what it is. I hate that my brain will automatically, without my knowledge, put up blocks to keep me from knowing that the belief I hold is wrong. My brain will fight to keep that belief, even if I believe that I am someone that can, and has, changed their mind when presented with better information. I guess it is better to research things before you say them, but even then you can miss something, fail to research something properly, or think you already know so research won't be done. Some things are also more complex and misunderstanding and misinformation occur. Such an annoying thing.
Scientists train themselves to recognize bias, but still fail even within their own field. It is impossible to spend enough time to make knowledgeable decisions about everything. So we need to evaluate what is more important to us, and learn more about those things, while choosing to accept something as a source position on less imortant things, and preferably periodically critically investigating that source. And even that has it's flaws. There is no way to ensure that you only believe rational things, and it is even possible to rationally hold conflicting opinions on certain subjects. Things are complicated, the world is complicated, and people are complicated.
Don't be so harsh on yourself though, the truth is that we can't know everything and having bumb believes is just part of life. As long as you try to be less wrong over time and stay open to new idea's you'll be fine 😊
@Pete Venuti right, it is easy to be blinded. That is the reason Scientists are trained to work out what predictions their pet hypothesis makes and design experiments to DISPROVE their own idea. And those who disprove hypotheses gain reputation, especially if it is one they themselves have been championing. And one's peers in peer review are one's biggest competitors. The reversal of goals helps make it easier to tear down one's own work. It isn't perfect, but putting the emphasis on disproving things and never accepting anything as true means that Science makes that little bit more progress.
it’s like when ant colonies get stuck in a death spiral. all of the ants are relying on the ant in front of them to lead the way back home, so they all get stuck in a circle and eventually walk themselves to death.
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.
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
Realizing when certain groups aren't good for you and cutting them out of your life is 10/10 the best thing you can do to improve your happiness. Even if it's some of your closest friends!
@@stalkingyouisfun no, I mean nothing matters in a good way. There’s no God that’ll judge my actions, so I can do whatever I want, like making my life the most happy it can be
@iamafraidofwomen ideally you make the right friends as an adult, but sometimes as a kid you make friends and don't realize they are crappy people until you're an adult.
I've always been a proponent of individuation, and finding yourself. In my personal experience, a lot of my problems have stemmed from my own action or inaction. Adding friends, communities, and herd mentality into the mix made it near impossible to recognize or address the problem. In our modern world, knowing where the line of where you end and society begins is exactly is more important now than ever before, and even more difficult. Great video as always, and I'm glad to see you still making great videos.
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.
@@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.
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
The difference between the wisdom of crowds and the madness of crowds is pretty simple. Wisdom of crowds is dependent on diversity of thought. Madness of crowds comes about when everyone thinks the same.
“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
_"We're all mad here"_ popped into my mind at the concluding quote haha. I love the way Vsauce videos are structured. Entertaining and educating as always.
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.
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.
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!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it" - Agent Kay, Men In Black (1997) I've had this quote on my mind more and more over the last few 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.
@@AricoAudio 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
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.
~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.
"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)
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.
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.
There's a funny little throwaway line in the show Dollhouse, where human-programmer Topher is talking to Victor, a human he programmed to be himself. When they're done needing two Tophers and about to factory-reset the copy, he claims that he can stay and help out by giving a second opinion. He's a very smart guy, after all, probably the smartest in the show. Real-Topher responds "It wouldn't be a second opinion! It would be the same opinion twice!" This is kinda the core of why crowds tend to be crazier. By joining a group, _especially_ for any notable length of time, your opinions intermix and before long you're all thinking the same one thing (with minor variations, but definitely less than before). So everyone in that group is giving the same one opinion, hundreds of times. And due to the nature of how easily hackable human trust is, that opinion probably belongs to the loudest, most confident-sounding member of that group, regardless of its validity. What you really want is to take a look at the combined information of many different unique experiences and perspectives, and use that to understand how the world works and how best to make changes for the betterment of everyone. If all you have are the experiences of your one group, you may come up with strategies that make all of YOU perfectly happy, but make things horribly worse for other people you haven't considered or don't care all that much about. And that's when you become the villain.
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.
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 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"
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.
@@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.
This video makes me remember a french youtuber called ‘Fouloscopie’ and he does experiences with crowds to explain how the humans (and other) work together.
2:20 The table of ox weight guesses is actually interesting. In modern parlance, real weight = 1207, std = 37, and left column = percentile. The median was actually spot on, whereas the avg was thrown off by extreme guesses (only by 1 according to vsauce). It's also interesting that relative to a normal distribution, ppl tend to guess lower.
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.
One way to think about it is that every individual is part of a whole, i.e. 0.5, and that crowds are multiplicative in terms of wisdom and knowledge, while individual ideas are additive. To the naked eye, it makes crowds to be more informed, because if information gets multiplied, that means it grows faster, right? It would if we were dealing in wholes, but like I mentioned earlier, we don't know everything about anything, which makes the half you know get multiplied by the half someone else knows, and so on and so forth, as you might know, 0.5 x 0.5 is not 1 or two, it's 0.25. This means, like he explained in the video, the more you discuss with more and more people, the collective answer gets diluted in the lack of full knowledge everyone has. When we form opinions individually though, things start to add, so the collective knowledge has different lenses to pass through instead of filtering in a crowd
The least knowledgeable speak with unearned authority and the most loudly, their misinformation spreads within the group because others don't want to have to think too hard on it and everyone is relieved that at least _someone_ knows _something,_ chaos ensues!
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.
"The Wisdom of Crowds" is a bit of a myth. The guessers around that bull weight had many people with a fair amount of knowledge of animals, enabling each of them to get reasonably close. And likely more people not knowing much, but canceling each other by wildly varying "random" guesses, meaning that the result came from the pool of knowledgeable guessers, which indeed should not be talking to each other.
Concerning CoPilot: Because training your body is just as much mental as it is physical, I'm going to focus more on the mental side and finally go back to seeing a counselor. It might accomplish nothing, but nothing is exactly what I'm accomplishing right now anyway. Thanks for the reminder that something as simple having someone to interact with can have amazing effects.
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.
🤓 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. UA-cam 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 UA-cam 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.
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.
10:41 Certain subreddits and other anonymous online forums come to mind. Remember, people, keep a close eye on what you feed your brain. Pay attention to what you pay attention to.
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
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
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.
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.
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*.
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.
Makes me thing about how juries are organized. It seems to be organized in a way that would lead to the madness of the crowd rather than the wisdom of it.
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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
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.
" 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
When I negate or go against someone's beliefs, like Flat Earth or something else dumb, in the back of my mind I tend to have a worrying thought. This thought goes along the lines of, "Man, I really hope I don't believe something else equally dumb and don't realize it."
I probably do, but I hate that I don't know what it is. I hate that my brain will automatically, without my knowledge, put up blocks to keep me from knowing that the belief I hold is wrong. My brain will fight to keep that belief, even if I believe that I am someone that can, and has, changed their mind when presented with better information. I guess it is better to research things before you say them, but even then you can miss something, fail to research something properly, or think you already know so research won't be done. Some things are also more complex and misunderstanding and misinformation occur. Such an annoying thing.
Scientists train themselves to recognize bias, but still fail even within their own field.
It is impossible to spend enough time to make knowledgeable decisions about everything.
So we need to evaluate what is more important to us, and learn more about those things, while choosing to accept something as a source position on less imortant things, and preferably periodically critically investigating that source.
And even that has it's flaws.
There is no way to ensure that you only believe rational things, and it is even possible to rationally hold conflicting opinions on certain subjects.
Things are complicated, the world is complicated, and people are complicated.
We're prisoners of our own minds.
Research is usually self confirming, Google algorithms just amplify that problem!
Don't be so harsh on yourself though, the truth is that we can't know everything and having bumb believes is just part of life.
As long as you try to be less wrong over time and stay open to new idea's you'll be fine 😊
@Pete Venuti right, it is easy to be blinded. That is the reason Scientists are trained to work out what predictions their pet hypothesis makes and design experiments to DISPROVE their own idea.
And those who disprove hypotheses gain reputation, especially if it is one they themselves have been championing.
And one's peers in peer review are one's biggest competitors.
The reversal of goals helps make it easier to tear down one's own work. It isn't perfect, but putting the emphasis on disproving things and never accepting anything as true means that Science makes that little bit more progress.
TLDR: get a lot of people intellectually dependent on each other together= madness get a lot of people intellectually independent= wisdom
Also it is scientifically proven that diverse groups are the best way to solve problems.
Demarchy for the win.
That's why were are so many people in cults. They keep relying on other people to think for them and don't question what they're being told
Thank you for summing up his video now I no longer have to watch it I should just read your comments wherever I go
How tight the social connections are between the members are only one factor. High stress and group size are other factors.
it’s like when ant colonies get stuck in a death spiral. all of the ants are relying on the ant in front of them to lead the way back home, so they all get stuck in a circle and eventually walk themselves to death.
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.
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
"the IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters"
This I like.
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
Realizing when certain groups aren't good for you and cutting them out of your life is 10/10 the best thing you can do to improve your happiness. Even if it's some of your closest friends!
That's called an echo chamber.
@@stalkingyouisfunwhy wouldn’t i want to surround myself with things i like? nothing matters
@@wren_. You matter
@@stalkingyouisfun no, I mean nothing matters in a good way. There’s no God that’ll judge my actions, so I can do whatever I want, like making my life the most happy it can be
@iamafraidofwomen ideally you make the right friends as an adult, but sometimes as a kid you make friends and don't realize they are crappy people until you're an adult.
I've always been a proponent of individuation, and finding yourself. In my personal experience, a lot of my problems have stemmed from my own action or inaction. Adding friends, communities, and herd mentality into the mix made it near impossible to recognize or address the problem.
In our modern world, knowing where the line of where you end and society begins is exactly is more important now than ever before, and even more difficult.
Great video as always, and I'm glad to see you still making great videos.
Well said.
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
The difference between the wisdom of crowds and the madness of crowds is pretty simple. Wisdom of crowds is dependent on diversity of thought. Madness of crowds comes about when everyone thinks the same.
Correct
I think the biggest issue is people's desire to fit in and self-censor
Or forced to think the same
cough cough religion.
Agreement via diverse methods?
“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
_"We're all mad here"_ popped into my mind at the concluding quote haha.
I love the way Vsauce videos are structured. Entertaining and educating as always.
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.
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.
"You'd be surprised how often those two coincide" - Captain Jack Sparrow.
Social media sure has made this worse over the years.
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!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it" - Agent Kay, Men In Black (1997)
I've had this quote on my mind more and more over the last few years
Nice video, keep up the great work!
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.
@@AricoAudio 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
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.
“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
~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.
One of the best videos on this channel so far. I saved it to my "Worth watching again" list. Great job!
Not knowing how many jelly beans there's in the jar brings me crazy! Thanks Kev!
same here. I won't be able to sleep before I know!
"Can I play with Madness?"
He said; "You're blind, too blind too see."
I ain't there in the middle, I'm in a super position of both sides
I am definitely either smart or crazy, probably a combination of the two, potentially both.
In order to stay sane in such a mad world, one must be at least a little bit insane - Sumgui
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.
Might be my favorite VSauce2 video so far. Fascinating stuff
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
There's a funny little throwaway line in the show Dollhouse, where human-programmer Topher is talking to Victor, a human he programmed to be himself. When they're done needing two Tophers and about to factory-reset the copy, he claims that he can stay and help out by giving a second opinion. He's a very smart guy, after all, probably the smartest in the show. Real-Topher responds "It wouldn't be a second opinion! It would be the same opinion twice!"
This is kinda the core of why crowds tend to be crazier. By joining a group, _especially_ for any notable length of time, your opinions intermix and before long you're all thinking the same one thing (with minor variations, but definitely less than before). So everyone in that group is giving the same one opinion, hundreds of times. And due to the nature of how easily hackable human trust is, that opinion probably belongs to the loudest, most confident-sounding member of that group, regardless of its validity.
What you really want is to take a look at the combined information of many different unique experiences and perspectives, and use that to understand how the world works and how best to make changes for the betterment of everyone. If all you have are the experiences of your one group, you may come up with strategies that make all of YOU perfectly happy, but make things horribly worse for other people you haven't considered or don't care all that much about. And that's when you become the villain.
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.
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 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"
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
This video makes me remember a french youtuber called ‘Fouloscopie’ and he does experiences with crowds to explain how the humans (and other) work together.
Thanks Kevin. You are definitely part of the wisdom
2:20 The table of ox weight guesses is actually interesting. In modern parlance, real weight = 1207, std = 37, and left column = percentile. The median was actually spot on, whereas the avg was thrown off by extreme guesses (only by 1 according to vsauce). It's also interesting that relative to a normal distribution, ppl tend to guess lower.
I so want a way more in-depth video about this subject.
@SabineHossenfelder just made a video about it
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.
One way to think about it is that every individual is part of a whole, i.e. 0.5, and that crowds are multiplicative in terms of wisdom and knowledge, while individual ideas are additive. To the naked eye, it makes crowds to be more informed, because if information gets multiplied, that means it grows faster, right? It would if we were dealing in wholes, but like I mentioned earlier, we don't know everything about anything, which makes the half you know get multiplied by the half someone else knows, and so on and so forth, as you might know, 0.5 x 0.5 is not 1 or two, it's 0.25. This means, like he explained in the video, the more you discuss with more and more people, the collective answer gets diluted in the lack of full knowledge everyone has. When we form opinions individually though, things start to add, so the collective knowledge has different lenses to pass through instead of filtering in a crowd
That's an excellent way to get the point across. Good insight!
„Hell is other people” ~ Jean-Paul Sartre
existencial dreads delivered in a very sensible and informative video, Just like I love them. And as always, Awesome!
I've done the jelly bean in a jar experiment before, and the crowd was only off by only 3 beans. It was cool and mind-blowing at the same time.
An alien once said wisely: Be yourself, no matter what they say.
I don't need a crowd for insanity, my brain grew schizophrenia all on its own.
The least knowledgeable speak with unearned authority and the most loudly, their misinformation spreads within the group because others don't want to have to think too hard on it and everyone is relieved that at least _someone_ knows _something,_ chaos ensues!
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.
"The Wisdom of Crowds" is a bit of a myth. The guessers around that bull weight had many people with a fair amount of knowledge of animals, enabling each of them to get reasonably close. And likely more people not knowing much, but canceling each other by wildly varying "random" guesses, meaning that the result came from the pool of knowledgeable guessers, which indeed should not be talking to each other.
Imma say there are like at least 2 jelly beans in that jar
Concerning CoPilot: Because training your body is just as much mental as it is physical, I'm going to focus more on the mental side and finally go back to seeing a counselor. It might accomplish nothing, but nothing is exactly what I'm accomplishing right now anyway. Thanks for the reminder that something as simple having someone to interact with can have amazing effects.
I love that part in adventure time.
Can I meet these minds.
Here are the minds.
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.
One of the best chanels on yt. Came back and shot to the top immediately🔥
Definitely crazy
You've ruined it
It’s amazing how much research you did to make this video
I beg your pardon, but I am at least as far as the A. The blue one.
Anyone else notice the soundtrack is the same as the one from "OXENFREE"
there are 2 jellybeans btw
I think there is a bit more complexity on the dust bowl farmers.
🤓 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. UA-cam 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 UA-cam 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.
We need more content like this video, please make more !
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 shameless plug at 8:15 had me rolling 💀💀💀
i dont do crowds.
Roughly 2880 - 3000 jellybeans
You are comment number 666
Nope more to the right, 1 after y
Glad to see yall back
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 internet has devolved my brain so much that i have snorted the line
One of the most critically important videos you've ever made.
So how many jellybeans are there in that jar? My guess is around 800.
Discernment is rarer than the most precious metals/gemstones.
Good lord, you are too real. It's hard for me to listen to this, but I feel like I need to.
watching the end of the video while my family argues downstairs is just too personal
10:41
Certain subreddits and other anonymous online forums come to mind. Remember, people, keep a close eye on what you feed your brain. Pay attention to what you pay attention to.
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
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.
I didn't know I needed this today but I did. Thank you.
One jellybean of each color. All the others are just symbolic links to the first one.
Next up: why every electron is the same electron.
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.
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.
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*.
Loved this video! One of the best I've seen on this channel! (And I've seen quite some)
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.
It would take a 5-hour video to do this topic any justice
Makes me thing about how juries are organized. It seems to be organized in a way that would lead to the madness of the crowd rather than the wisdom of it.
i love this video. thank you vsauce for years of boiling off the volume and leaving pure content.
Thats why IM CRAZY SMART
I wanna be both crazy and smart,to be unbound,yet powerfull. Mentaly at least.
I can tell you from personal experience that there is no "line" between smart and crazy, instead there is considerable overlap.
When will there be talk of the calmness of crowds?