It May Just be a Case of Collective Illusions | The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

somebody say action not you anybody but you action actually I'd prefer if somebody else did it not you or you James why don't you say no no no James say action action so I just learned that 80% of the content on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter is created by just 10% of the people who use it that means a tiny minority of individuals are creating what appears to be an overwhelming consensus around dozens of important topics the same thing happens in the mainstream media every single day and that's LED millions of Americans to assume that their own opinions on a great many things are out of step with the opinions of the majority when in fact they're not these assumptions are called Collective Illusions and according to Todd Rose they're the reason entire societies including ours wind up doing all sorts of things that we the people don't want to do if he's right then maybe just maybe America is not as divided as we [Music] think I ran into Todd at a stand together event and Todd and I started talking we we talked for about 40 minutes and brenon the guy in the room pulled me aside after you left Todd and he said Mike if there's a way to have that conversation again and share it with the world I think we can save the Republic all right well that's a good high bar yeah no pressure okay so back to populace the recent research what Illusions collectively are are really at work in the workplace I think that we're known for a populace which is just in Dental it's stuff we needed is to get to the world we want we need a drop dead accurate understanding of what people really think right now in American society there's enormous amount of social pressure to say the right thing our brains have a Conformity bias right all it's equal we prefer to be with our groups not against our groups and that's okay that's good but we are absolutely terrible at estimating what our groups think because your brain thinks that the loudest voices repeated the most are the majority on Twitter alone 80% % of all content is created by 10% of the users that 10% isn't remotely representative of the rest of the public if only 10% of people hold of you but you think it's 80% your brain is going like that's the majority and unless I'm willing to go against my group I'm going to say nothing and the result is these massive Collective illusions with respect to work we're looking at what people's trade-off priorities are for the jobs they do you would have imagined a lot of the typical stuff like like a prestigious title getting paid the most working for a bigname company all these things which historically have actually been markers of success and people have actually prioritized those things have plummeted but what has risen is this pursuit of meaning and purpose at work the reason Dirty Jobs was such a tough cell is because nobody at the network believe that anybody would want to watch portrayals of what felt like drudgery and their Mind's Eye the reason it's still in production 20 years later is that the cognitive dissonance has become simply unavoidable that show through humor portrays hard work and confirms all of the difficulties and challenges you would associate with it but it sprinkles over the top a patina of dignity MH humor a Band of Brothers mentality and in many cases a level of prestige to your point and prosperity that you wouldn't expect to find that's why I'm so interested in your research in 2019 preparing for college was a top 10 priority for every demographic in the country it is plummeted plummeted the pandemic has completely reshaped this it is now 47th out of 57 possible priorities for K12 wow in its place is a commitment to Preparing kids for careers and preparing them to do work that's meaningful and fulfilling that's what we want now now here's the problem when it comes to Collective Illusions preparing for college is 47 it's doesn't get much worse than that in terms of how actively we are deprioritizing this outcome do you know what we think it is what we think most people would say we think most people would say it is the third third most important priority for top five top five but it's not there's no other outcome amazing so here we are we all want this thing we are sick and tired of having this one-size fits-all system funneling every kid to college on their dime just to have the privilege of being able to pay to be able to get a career that didn't require a college diploma in the first place I love it when the headlines catch up to my shows and make them relevant in ways that no one thought they were going to be but I especially love it when the science catches up to my bull crap claims and I can suddenly point to something and say hey look at that I mean I've been beating this drum for 15 years for all the perception of this deep polarization in our society the truth is is in almost every aspect of life that matters most we have so much in common in private it's unbelievable I mean it's important dude because if if people don't feel like they're alone in their convictions around the idea that shop class should be back in high schools and that our Workforce can't be divided against itself it's two sides of the same coin I care a lot about public education what a great achievement in a society to mass educate people to such a level but we are at risk of losing public support for this because it is no longer about doing better it's about doing different and if you don't recognize that fact that we have to transform this institution and force it to deliver on the priorities and outcomes that the American public wants and realize that we are together on that we can transform this thing tomorrow there were videos going around and and there still are they're everywhere people making videos of themselves at Twitter and Facebook and various silicon Valley companies and it's like a day in the life at my job and it's just filled with things that make a lot of people just shake their head and go what how is this even possible Right meditation booths aroma therapy candles you know Bonsai Gardens they can walk around like nothing that looks like work seems to be happening and so I shared some links to these videos and then next to them I posted some links to some recent Dirty Jobs just to say look in a world where people are trying to figure out the definition of a good job and we're and we're looking for examples of what work is you know okay if you're going to look at that at least look at this did I make it worse am I perpetuating a collective illusion or am I just trying to keep the conversation Lively on the Facebook you're spot on and here's why so there's a massive Collective illusion right now in the workforce priorities index we found which is all the stuff you named all the goodies all the free food and swag and meditation booths and like this all of those fall in the lowest priorities you could possibly have for the kind of work you want to do however God however massive Collective illusion we think everybody cares about these things we start to advocate for things that we don't really want and unless you see some counterprogramming right unless you see some Alternatives and and I think this is this is why for me selfishly the reason I wrote the book Collective Illusions is nobody knows about that phenomenon so if you don't even know that it's possible that you can't trust your brain to tell you what most people think yes why would you think you're wrong right so I'm hoping that by people understanding that phenomenon they can stop and say you know what there's no more Point anymore to just blindly going along with what I think everybody thinks cuz I'm probably wrong but what the research is saying is it only feels that way because everybody thinks that's what everybody is is doing and when you drill down genz doesn't want this they don't want it they want meaningful work they want to move the needle they want to make a difference this is a generation that was born and raised on our social Technologies the ability to amplify a vocal Fringe without us understanding what that does to us and how our brains process that they're the first to live through that completely so it's not surprising that they are the most susceptible to these Illusions right now so that's the bad news because if you don't do anything about Illusions they tend to become private opinion over time the good news about Collective Illusions is they're disastrous when they're in force but they are fragile because they are lies and history has shown us when we shatter them you can unlock social change at a pace and scale that would be unimaginable otherwise it's we the people that have succumbed to these Illusions and Only We the People can shatter them the best example of this ever is the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia we overthrew communism without a single person losing their life and that was led by a poet and a playwright Vos H had no military experience was never a politician before never formed a political party and he had written this satire of Communism called the garden party and it was so subtle that the that the censors didn't even know they were being made fun of and it was the Hamilton of its time everybody came they laughed at all the right parts they laughed at things they would not find fun funny if they really believed in communism so he realized that the problem was not private agreement with Communism but a collective illusion even he doesn't realize what he's Unleashed he's interviewed in an International magazine and he says listen I believe in the revolution i in it for the long haul but I don't think I'll live to see the end 3 months later he was the first democratically elected president of a free czecho Sakia so the moral of the story is not not that change can happen but it can happen like that like that if you walk a bad idea back you really can almost find its progenitor and if you walk a courageous truth forward you can almost find the kid in the crowd in h Christian Anderson's story saying hey is it just me or is that Emperor naked yeah and once that happens right whether it's hav whether it's a fictitious kid in a parade you know boy it's a it's extraordinary we can get somewhere unbelievably remarkable in America in a hurry and all it takes as simple as this sounds is for everyone listening to speak up in their neighborhoods with their families in their churches respectfully humbly you might not be right just cuz you have an opinion doesn't mean you're right but you owe it to your fellow citizens to respectfully give your opinion if you do that if you have take that small Act of Courage you will be part of something that history will look back on as usering in an incredible new era of American Prosperity not just materially but psychologically that's what's available to us right now it feels like the days are dark they're not they're not and we have a role to play w

Channel: Mike Rowe

Views: 682,778

Keywords: mike rowe, mike rowe dirty jobs, mike rowe podcast, somebody's gotta do it, m1m2m3, m1k3r0w3, m1m2, j03s, r0w3, Todd Rose, opinion, illusions, reality, truth, Harvard, america, divided, education, student, GPA, blue, red, research, society

Id: rAI2iFm_Knk

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024