An excerpt from the book Homo
Imitans by Leandro Herrero:
The pre-existence or the engineering of a
common goal very often links people together in a way that
accelerates social copying. In a recent television series in
England, school students with no particular singing skills or interest
in singing were invited by a charismatic young (external) teacher to
create a choir in a school without choir tradition. At first, the
teacher was frustrated as he was not able to get many students to join. Then, a tipping point moment followed where the
enrollment of some induced the enrolment of others and, suddenly,
a very reasonably-sized choir was formed. At some
point (‘threshold change’), social copying (enrolling, attending
class, singing, rehearsing) took over and singing in a choir
became acceptable. Eventually, this brand new choir entered a
large public competition at a first-class venue.
Many of the components of social contagion
that will be addressed in this book were present in that
television series. The champions: mainly the young teacher and the
head of music. The backstage leaders: the headmaster and other
teachers. At first, they were baffled, but then they understood
that their role was to support the choir in the background and to
be seen doing so; not to come along to choir rehearsals and
pontificate about ‘the importance of singing’. The behaviours:
joining the queue for enrollment, rehearsing, being punctual and
talking about it. The attitude of the students: initially sceptical
and even hostile, but then turning into positive when they saw a
critical mass (a group of their own peers) on board. The threshold
change: slow intake and change at the beginning, then things
speeding up quite quickly. The social reinforcement: being able
to sing per se and in front of people; the visit from other young
choir singers from another school of similar social status
(‘people like us’) and, probably, the presence of
the cameras.
For more visit www.viralchange.com
No comments:
Post a Comment