"Social Animals"

Fine words: "The reason why humans become humans is precisely because we live in a civilized society and are affected by others every moment. If we consider Throw away all this influence and no longer interact with others, then this person is no longer a human being."

Author: E. Aronson

" "Social Animals" is known as the "Bible of Social Psychology" and is a book in the category of social psychology. There are many examples and illustrations in this book, which reflect war, propaganda, prejudice, aggression, harassment, insanity, political unrest, etc. series of social issues. In my opinion, this book is mainly about the possible experiences and behaviors of people and social environments. Comparing society to a forest, people's different professional roles in this society play different types of animals in the forest. For example: in a company with a wolf culture, a "Husky" may turn into a wolf in such a company, and in a "Husky" company, a wolf may also turn into a "Husky". This is what the book mentions. Known as the "herd mentality", research also proves that power agencies and normative groups prefer those who conform to the crowd rather than those who deviate. However, following the herd is not always a good thing.

The most attractive aspect of social animals is that people have the need to see themselves as rational and perfect, and this need causes people to frequently take imperfect and irrational actions.

People's reactions to social influence can be divided into three categories: compliance, identification and internalization.

Compliance properly describes a human behavior that is motivated by the desire to obtain a reward or avoid punishment. Its characteristic is that the behavior lasts for as long as the reward or punishment exists.

Identification is a response to social influence that occurs because an individual wishes to be like the person who exerts the influence.

Internalization Internalization of norms and beliefs is the most lasting and deep-rooted response to social influence. The motivation to internalize a belief stems from the desire to be right and not make mistakes. Internalization is the most durable response to social influence. This is because a person's motivation to be right is a powerful self-supportive force. It does not rely on continuous supervision in the form of rewards or punishments like compliance does. Nor does identity depend on ongoing respect for another person or group.

The main factors involved in compliance, identification and internalization: An important component of compliance is power - the power to reward compliance and punish non-compliance. The key component of identification is attraction—the attraction of the identified to the identifying. An important component of internalization is credibility—the degree to which the informant is trustworthy.

This book is rigorous in content, easy to explain in simple terms, fascinating, and better explains human nature.