The Herd Mentality

A concept that really stood out to me in Nudge was herd mentality. In the text itself, herd mentality is associated with Jim Jones and Jonestown. In that example, Jones was able to persuade all of his followers to drink a toxic acid mixture. With my topic being Israeli integration I wanted to connect herd mentality to the political and social aspects involved. On the political side, it’s clear that both in the US and Israel its clear that herd mentality has played a large role in pushing the political landscape to the hard right. In other words, a so-called collective desire for change elected President Donald Trump in the United States and helped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remain in power.

People naturally wanted to follow those close to them and take in the information they believed. In voting for these two candidates there wasn’t a sense of individuality but rather a sense of unified ideals. People felt that everyone was voting for their so-called preferred candidate and it was this perception that helped shift votes away from other candidates to Trump and Netanyahu. While the policies that they sought to enact were definitely extreme as more and more people “herded” to vote for them it slowly became more acceptable. Even if it only started with one person, the shifting of people in droves to vote for the two of them created a herd mentality. Regardless of how unique and different the candidates were, people were influenced by others to steer clear of the mainstream candidates and vote for candidates whose rationality can be rightly questioned. Emotions and feelings were what led people to develop cult-like attitudes in order to vote for them. I believe that individuals on their own would not have made these decisions, but a collective emotional appeal caused people to lose sight of themselves and become immersed.

As far as the social aspect herd mentality can also be applied to the support of certain policies. More specifically herd mentality can be applied to the wall that Trump sought to build and the settlements that Netanyahu sought to annex. Each of these are rather extreme and unorthodox policies. Politicians need public support in order to adopt and enact their ideas. The wall and settlements are no different. Netanyahu and Trump were each able to make emotional appeals to their voters, and constituents in order to win over support. If people saw others being more outspoken and supportive of these it made it more digestible for them to do the same themselves. In each of these instances, herd mentality is the explanation behind why people became emotionally invested in supporting bizarre policies and candidates. Some could go as far as to say that these two candidates developed cult followings which further compounded the herd effect but that’s a discussion for another day.

The moral of the story is that regardless of how extreme or unusual certain ideas maybe if people see others moving in that direction it’s more likely that they will do the same. I think that this essay will give me a great opportunity to hone on in the political and social aspects of integration and the subsequent effects of those. The prior essays and blogs may have offered a quote on quote birds’ eye view but a look into these topics will create a more defined approach. No matter how many years pass or political leaders come and go, it’s clear that the impact of these two will remain for decades. Nudges can have a variety of different impacts, and it’s increasingly clear that those come in different forms, shapes, and sizes.

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