Definition: Sheeping is mindlessly following the others when you actually know the right actions and behaviors but don't want to assume responsibility for them.
On June 1st 1999, American Airlines Flight 1420 was coming in for landing at Little Rock airport in Arkansas amidst raging thunderstorms and severe winds. As they tried to line up with the runway for landing, dangerous crosswinds hit the airplane and the storm changed directions fast several times. The crew and passengers realized they were in serious danger. The pilots decided to land by making a visual approach but heavy rain and dark clouds obscured the runway. Visibility fell drastically as the plane descended. Finally, the plane hit the tarmac violently. Traveling at over 100 MPH, the aircraft ran off the end of the runway and slammed into a steel walkway. The plane was ripped into pieces. Ten passengers died in the crash, including the captain. The passengers who were still alive struggled to get out before the plane was engulfed by fire.
The deeper investigators looked, the more they found extraordinary evidence that flying into thunderstorms was a widely spread habit throughout the entire industry. Experts from NASA and MIT studied the behavior of pilots during landing. The researchers wanted to see when pilots will fly into thunderstorms. [Technical report]
"Pilots know that if we go into that thunderstorm
we may not come out alive"
- Greg Faith, NTSB Chief Investigator for National Geographic
Investigators studied a total of two thousand airplanes that flew into severe thunderstorms. The results are mind-blowing: two out of three pilots (66% of pilots) flew and landed in thunderstorms. The study reveals that pilots exhibited more recklessness when the pilot in front of them also landed in bad weather.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble,
is what you know for sure that just ain't so"
- (Probably) Mark Twain
Sheeping is mindlessly following the others when you actually know the right actions and behaviors but don't want to assume responsibility for them. Many times we take our cue from people around us. We unconsciously determine the right actions based on what the others are doing. Sheeping (the technical term is social proof) is especially critical in moments of uncertainty. When we are not sure what we have to do and what is the right behavior, we automatically and unconsciously look for evidence around us: How are the people around us behaving? We automatically assume that they must know something we don't and follow them. Unfortunately, most of the times they don't know any better and they also look around for social evidence in us. And thus sheeping expands.
"Sheeping is mindlessly following the others when you actually know the right actions and behaviors but don't want to assume responsibility for them" - Dr. Dragos
Obviously, when you have an idea, when you want to do extraordinary with your life there is a lot of uncertainty. Very likely you are not sure what is the next right action. If you take bold leadership for your life, you need to be contrarian. Listen to your gut feeling and don't rationalize your intuition away. Because It's never the extraordinary people who do the extraordinary. It's the ordinary people like you and me who decide to step out, get up off their knees and take the journey. Because they complete the journey, ordinary people like you become extraordinary. Beware, the sheep are watching over your mind. Be contrarian.
Your friend,
Dr. Dragos
PS: Can you think of other situations in which sheeping is harmful? Maybe when you decide to smoke because your colleagues smoke. When you drink more because others drink more? When you have meetings and know what the reality is and nobody is doing anything? When hundreds of people are stepping over a person lying unconscious in the metro station? Leave a comment and let me know.
