Who is driving your bus?
At last, we are getting out to restaurants again – a chance to reconnect and to enjoy food not cooked by us. See if this a familiar scenario: You are going to meet up with a couple friends with whom you have not socialized since early last year.
For weeks prior to getting vaccinated and going mask less.
However, you had started a campaign to get rid of those pounds that had crept around your waist in the last 18 months.
You’re thinking you might have a salad with grilled meat on top when one of your friends chimes in with, “Man, it’s so good getting back out again with you guys! Let’s go whole hog and celebrate! First round is on me AND there will be dessert! Yay!”
You look to your other friend who was considering the salad menu as well but puts it down declaring, “You’re right! This is going to make up for over a year of deprivation! I hear their lasagna is to die for, and the breadbasket is bottomless!”
You probably know how this meal will go. Who are you to diminish the party by drinking water, saying no to the alcohol, lasagna, bread, AND the dessert?
It’s human nature. Apparently, we cannot shake that primordial instinct to exist more safely in a group. That desire to belong, to be in the safety of numbers, and looking to others for a consensus is played out every day.
Even if it is to our detriment.
Being swayed by the input of others is often called “norm matching.” It can govern not only what you choose to eat, but when you pick up your fork (when someone else does) and even matching your consumption to others.
I was reintroduced to this concept in terms of food choices in the Noom cour, I have spoken about. [This link will get you 2 weeks free on Noom and a 20% discount. I will receive monetary thanks from Noom if you use it.]
As I did a little research about norm matching, the link to Solomon Asch’s famous conformity experiment from the 1950s quickly popped up. Look at the image of the two cards below:
The assignment is to choose either A, B, or C, to be the match for the line on the card to the left. There were many sets of cards needing matches such as this one in his experiment.
Not rocket science.
Only 1% of those being studied chose incorrectly when their answers were given silently and anonymously. Open the floor to discussion, introduce some clearly incorrect responses by some planted actors, and 75% of the people being studied went along with the false consensus at various times during the study.
All in the name of conformity.
Which begs the question. Who’s driving your bus?
As I was researching today, a recent conversation with a friend popped into my mind. My friend was concerned about a family member who is following the lead of a circle of friends who believe that being vaccinated against Covid is unnecessary because Covid is not real.
Sigh.
Whether the choice is lasagna vs. grilled chicken salad or getting vaccinated or not, do your due diligence at your research of valid, verifiable, science. Look at your resource; check credentials; get input from a variety of sources.
Order you meal first. Maybe you can lead the crowd by saying that you’re celebrating getting together by honoring your body with a healthy choice.
My concern – more than food choice, however – is whether the person at the next table to you – who has delayed getting vaccinated – will get Covid from you and require hospitalization.
For more information about the Covid vaccine, check out this helpful WEBSITE.
In the words of Fiona Robertson in Norm Matching (fionarobertson.com): “You can’t change the way human brains are wired, but if you understand them, you can work with them instead of against them.”
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In health-
Deidre