Page 143 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

integrated approach to herding, describing two key issues, the mechanisms of transmission of

thoughts or behavior between individuals and the warped patterns of connections between them.

Frith suggested that bringing together diverse theoretical approaches of herding behavior

illuminates the applicability of the concept to many domains, ranging from cognitive neuroscience

to economics. (Burke, Tobler, Schultz, Baddeley 2010).

The philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche were among the first to

criticize what they referred to as "the crowd" (Kierkegaard) and "herd morality" and the "herd

instinct" (Nietzsche) in human society. Modern psychological and economic research has

identified herd behavior in humans to explain the phenomenon of large numbers of people acting

in the same way at the same time. The British surgeon Wilfred Trotter first popularized the "herd

behavior" phrase in his book, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1914).

According to a new socio-cognitive theory that includes many of the basic characteristics

of “herd think” – e.g., strong cohesion, indulgent atmosphere, and exclusive ethos – are the result

of a special kind of mnemonic encoding (Tsoukalas, 2007). Members of tightly knit groups have

a tendency to represent significant aspects of their community as episodic memories (which recalls

autobiographical events that I have described as a “noun reality” whose associated non-stop

reference is limited to people, places and things, emotions, and other contextual who, what, when,

where, why knowledge) that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal

experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. For example, every American can recall

where they were on 9/11 or when President Kennedy was assassinated, this is an episodic memory.

By allowing an individual or group to figuratively travel back in time to remember the

event that took place at that particular time and place “autonoetic consciousness” takes place which

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