Hey Tim, did you see this other thread ?
http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?topic=8001.msg101723#msg101723Academics, like teenagers, sometimes dont have any sense
regarding the degree to which they are conformists.
So says Thomas Bouchard, the Minnesota psychologist known for his
study of twins raised apart, in a retirement interview with
Constance Holden in the journal Science.
Journalists, of course, are conformists too. So are most other
professions. Theres a powerful human urge to belong inside the
group, to think like the majority, to lick the bosses shoes, and to
win the groups approval by trashing dissenters.
The strength of this urge to conform can silence even those who
have good reason to think the majority is wrong. You âre an expert
because all your peers recognize you as such. But if you start to
get too far out of line with what your peers believe, they will
look at you askance and start to withdraw the informal title of
expert they have implicitly bestowed on you. Then youâll bear the
less comfortable label of maverick, which is only a few stops
short of scapegoat or pariah.