Classical Conditioning and Social Influence: How We're Conditioned by Society
A 60-minute session (held 22 September 2024) on the reactions we never chose: the song that changes our mood, the phone we grab before we think, the Sunday-evening dread left over from school, the toothpaste we still buy because our mother did, the 'boys don't cry' we still half-believe. Which of these were put there by family, school and adverts, and which can we take back? Twelve independent cards; open three or four.
The opening question
What's one sound that makes your body react before your mind catches up, like a pressure-cooker whistle, a ringtone or a school bell?
Everyone in the room answers this in one line before any card is opened. Write the answers down; you will come back to them.
The cards
12 ways into the topic
Each card is independent. Your group votes on which to open, and four or five is plenty for an hour. Behind every card sit three prompts, one at a time, that only appear once it is opened on the board. Unopened cards keep for next time.
- 1
Songs That Take You Back
A song comes on in a shop. Suddenly you're sixteen again, on a bus, thinking of someone you haven't remembered in years.
- 2
Reaching For Your Phone
Your phone buzzes. Your hand moves before you've even thought about it. Sometimes you feel it buzz in your pocket when it didn't.
- 3
Sunday Evening Dread
It's Sunday evening. Nothing bad has happened. But as the light fades, a heavy feeling settles in, the same one you had before school on Monday.
- 4
Brands Your Family Swears By
In your house it was always the same toothpaste, the same tea, the same washing powder. You still buy them now.
- 5
Rewards For Good Marks
Score above 90 and you get the new cycle. Score badly and the TV goes off for a month. That's how it worked in a lot of homes.
- 6
Food As A Reward
When you were sad as a child, someone gave you a sweet. When you did well, there was a treat. Now a bad day ends with ice cream.
- 7
School Habits That Stayed
You're thirty and at work. You still say “May I come in?” at your boss's door. You still call everyone “sir” or “ma'am”.
- 8
Fears Picked Up From Family
Your mother screams at every cockroach. Now you scream too, though one has never hurt you. Your friend just picks it up with a tissue and laughs.
- 9
What Boys And Girls Were Told
As a boy, you were told: don't cry, be strong. As a girl, you were told: adjust, sit properly, help in the kitchen. Nobody explained why.
- 10
Preferring Fair Skin
A relative visits the new baby and says, “So fair, just like her father!” Everyone smiles. A darker cousin is told to stay out of the sun.
- 11
Lucky Rituals And Superstitions
India needs twenty runs off the last over. Nobody in the room is allowed to move. You're sitting exactly where you sat when the last six was hit.
- 12
Good Habits Need Drilling
You hated being woken at six. You hated greeting every guest. Now you wake early without an alarm and welcome people warmly without thinking.
The line to leave with
Of the things you did automatically today, which ones did you actually choose, and which ones were chosen for you long ago?
More boards,more ways in.
Every discussion we have run has a board behind it. Browse them by topic.