Scott, are you on your way to reconsideration perhaps? 2010/11/9 Scott Loveless <[email protected]>: > O hai! This is way off topic and concerns the reasons people feel > compelled to do things in a group. The PDML is such an eclectic > group, though, I figured someone would know something about it. Worst > case scenario - half of you tell me to shut up and the other half gets > into a flame war. <g> > > I've been thinking about crowds, or rather the reasons people want to > do things with other people. This stems from looking into events such > as marathons. (I actually have no interest in running a marathon, but > I'm going to use it as an example.) I'm curious as to what makes a > person want to do these things under the watchful eye of a sanctioning > body or event organizer. Also, I've noticed that there are people who > will prepare for such events for the sole purpose of participating in > the event. In other words, if the organized event, such as a > marathon, didn't exist then there is a distinct possibility that the > participants wouldn't have bothered training to run such a distance. > These things seem obvious on the surface, but why wouldn't a person > who is driven to prepare and participate in such events just do it > anyway, even without the organization or other runners? > > I don't like crowds at all. The thought of spending money and dealing > with the logistics of getting to and participating in a marathon, just > so I can have a certificate and my name in a record book somewhere is > completely foreign to me. Another example - there's the "Covered > Bridge Metric Century" in Lancaster County, PA. It's a long, > organized bicycle ride through some very scenic rolling hills. As the > name implies, the ride passes by or crosses several covered bridges. > The cue sheet is published and anyone can download it. I can go ride > their metric century any time I want. Yet, every year hundreds of > cyclists will pay money, deal with traffic and parking, and wait in > lines just to ride this route with a bunch of other tourists. To me > it sounds like a colossal headache. But to quite a few other people > it is apparently enjoyable. > > I initially started looking for explanations with search terms like > "crowd psychology", but that's something different. So what I'm > asking for is the psychological terminology that applies to this > behavior. I'd like to read more about it, but I'm unsure where to > look. Thanks! > > -- > Scott Loveless > http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ > __o > _'\<,_ > (*)/ (*) > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. >
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