“If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?”
“Oh jeez. Probably.”
“What!? Why!?”
“Because all my friends did. Think about it—which scenario is more likely: every single person I know, many of them levelheaded and afraid of heights, abruptly went crazy at exactly the same time… …or the bridge is on fire?”
(Seeing that strip again reminds me of an explanation for why teenagers in the US tend to take more risks than adults. It’s not because the teenagers irrationally underestimate risks but because they see bigger benefits to taking risks.)
See also this Will_Newsome comment. (I incorrectly remembered that it said something like “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?” “If all of them survived, I probably would.”)
The ” every single person I know, many of them levelheaded and afraid of heights, abruptly went crazy at exactly the same time” scenario should be given some credence in human society; there is such a thing as puberty. The definition of puberty being ” every single person I know abruptly went crazy at exactly the same time, including me”.
Randall Munroe, on updating on other people’s beliefs.
Dilbert dunnit first!
(Seeing that strip again reminds me of an explanation for why teenagers in the US tend to take more risks than adults. It’s not because the teenagers irrationally underestimate risks but because they see bigger benefits to taking risks.)
Let me just put the text string ‘xkcd’ in here, because I was going to add this if nobody else had, and it’s lucky that I found it first.
Oh, and there’s more text in the comic than what’s quoted, and it’s good too, so read the comic everybody!
See also this Will_Newsome comment. (I incorrectly remembered that it said something like “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?” “If all of them survived, I probably would.”)
The ” every single person I know, many of them levelheaded and afraid of heights, abruptly went crazy at exactly the same time” scenario should be given some credence in human society; there is such a thing as puberty. The definition of puberty being ” every single person I know abruptly went crazy at exactly the same time, including me”.