Conditioned behaviour

Salu · 12-09-2005, 15:54

Do you ever find yourself doing something that annoys you because you are doing something from conditioning rather than choice?

Does it annoy you that we do things from habit rather than reason sometimes?

Like buying more ice creams when its hot but not in the winter. Why not eat ice cream in the winter? Cos is cold? So do you stop drinking tea in the summer then? Hmmmmm

Like picking up the 2 for 1s in the supermarket on the edge of the aisles. Would you buy them if they weren't there? Maybe...perhaps not though...

Ever found yourself in a traffic queue when the other lane is not only free but is actually the one that you want but you just queued right along behind the other traffic, just like a little sheep.....

Ever been to MacDonalds and found a long queue behind one service point and another right next to it with only 2 people queuing?

marky · 12-09-2005, 16:00

and people who park right next to you on a car park when there are 1000s of spaces because the car park is empty

Angua · 12-09-2005, 16:06

Pushing an emptied trolley to a trolley park when you are nearer to the trolley collection point

Ramrod · 12-09-2005, 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Ever found yourself in a traffic queue when the other lane is not only free but is actually the one that you want but you just queued right along behind the other traffic, just like a little sheep.....

That often happens in car park exits, people assume the other exit lane must be closed 'cos no-one is in it....I always drive past the queue of cars chuckling at the sheep......

Dave Stones · 12-09-2005, 16:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod

That often happens in car park exits, people assume the other exit lane must be closed 'cos no-one is in it....I always drive past the queue of cars chuckling at the sheep......

how many times have you done that and it has actually been closed though, making you look ike a complete schmo?

**Paul M** · 12-09-2005, 16:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Like buying more ice creams when its hot but not in the winter. Why not eat ice cream in the winter? Cos is cold? So do you stop drinking tea in the summer then? Hmmmmm

I have ice cream all year round from McDonalds and Beefeater.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Like picking up the 2 for 1s in the supermarket on the edge of the aisles. Would you buy them if they weren't there? Maybe...perhaps not though...

Nope, only buy what I want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Ever found yourself in a traffic queue when the other lane is not only free but is actually the one that you want but you just queued right along behind the other traffic, just like a little sheep.....

Nope, I swap lanes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Ever been to MacDonalds and found a long queue behind one service point and another right next to it with only 2 people queuing?

Again no, I visit McDonalds every week (often more than once), and always pick the shortest queue - however, in my 'local' one, they only have one queue.

Salu · 12-09-2005, 16:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul M

I have ice cream all year round from McDonalds and Beefeater.

Nope, only buy what I want.

Nope, I swap lanes.

Again no, I visit McDonalds every week (often more than once), and always pick the shortest queue - however, in my 'local' one, they only have one queue.

Are you intimating that you are immune from any form of conditioned behaviour or just the few examples that I gave?

marky · 12-09-2005, 16:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Are you saying that you are immune from any form of conditioned behaviour or just the few examples that I gave?

well he's a compulsive mcdonalds eater

**Paul M** · 12-09-2005, 16:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Are you intimating that you are immune from any form of conditioned behaviour or just the few examples that I gave?

I doubt I'm immune, but I don't follow the examples you gave (and the others in here so far ....)

12-09-2005, 21:30

I remember a program that was on Channel 4, it was fronted by ex-Loaded writer Grub Smith, and was about the amazing results uncovered (mostly) by the American Military after WW2 and subsrquent conflicts (cant for the life of me mind the name of the program though).

The Americans found that during WW2 only 10% or so of their soldiers actually shot to kill the enemy. The other 90% of frontline infantrymen would shoot in the direcrion of the enemy without really aiming, carry ammunition etc. The figures collected post Korean War showed a slight increase to around 15% of combat infantrymen actively trying to kill the enemy with aimed rifle fire. Post Vietnam the American military noted a further increase in the number of infantrymen actively trying to kill the enemy (somewhere in the region of 40-50%). By the time the Americans got to Gulf One, the number of frontline infantrymen actively aiming to kill had reached the dizzy heights of 85+ percent.

The reason for this increase of soldiers actually doing what they where payed for was down to extensive psychological profiling, and repetition training. The US Army found that 98% of humans have a basic inbuilt aversion to killing their fellow human beings (probably a good thing for the species really). But. By making simple changes to the manner in which soldiers where trained, thay could trick them into pulling the trigger with out thinking about the consequences of their actions. The first change instagated was changing from a Bullseye on the pistol and rifle ranges, to a human shaped target. Sounds like a simple change, but is the first subtile step in a squaddies desensatisation and brutalisation. A new traing program was instatuted in which soldiers would repeat the same exercises, untill they would follow the prescribed actions no matter what the situation, be it a traing exercise in FIBUA or actually clearing building in a combat setting. The down side to this conditioned behaviour was that while you can trick people into doing something they feel is abhorent, there will usually be a psychological price to pay at a later date.

As an upshot of the psychological profiling carried out, it was also found that 2 other types of extraordinary people exist.

It was found that 1% of soldiers could be classed as Sociopathic. The fact that 1% of soldiers actively enjoyed all the misery, pain and killing going on around them made them handy to have on your team, but required a tight leash.

The last group where found to be the most extraordinary of all. One percent of soldiers showed psychological traits from both previously mentioned groups. These special people found killing to be as wrong as the previously mentioned majority of soldiers. But also exhibited a willingness and ability to kill without psychological trauma that a sociopath would show. There are a long list of such people in the history of 20th centurary warfare ie, Audy Murphy who may still be the most highly decorated soldier the American mititary ever had.

But to answer you question Salu, I think any and all of us are conditioned to a greater or lesser extent. Its just that some of us are unwilling to give into that conditioning as readly as others.

Martin · 12-09-2005, 22:28

People being happy when clearly they don't give a stuff about how nice a day i'm having!!

marky · 12-09-2005, 22:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin

People being happy when clearly they don't give a stuff about how nice a day i'm having!!

yeh like b & q staff

Martin · 12-09-2005, 22:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by marky

yeh like b & q staff

I'm genuinely happy tho!

Halcyon · 12-09-2005, 22:45

Interesting topic. I always end up realising and then thinking, why the hell did I do this or choose that.
I guess maybe sometimes we feel security if we follow the crowd (when following cars, parking next to them, etc), but the supermarkets that do all these clever tricks to make us buy things study this really hard and I'm sure there are several big techniques used to attract attention and get us to notice things that we wouldnt otherwise pick up on.

Graham · 13-09-2005, 02:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin

People being happy when clearly they don't give a stuff about how nice a day i'm having!!

They get a conditioned response back from me:

"Share and Enjoy!"