You don’t want to miss this…

I’m sure you’ll find this hard to believe.

When I was a kid, I occasionally did things I knew were wrong.

Without fail, my mother always found out.

When she asked me why I did something I knew was wrong I would always respond “I did it because everyone else was doing it”

And she would respond…

“If everyone jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, would you follow them?”

After all these years, my actions have been justified.

In chapter 9 of Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the seductive pull of social norms.

We imitate the habits of three groups.

1. The Close
2. The Many
3. The Powerful

When I did things with my friends that we knew weren’t right, we were imitating the Many.

We knew we could get in trouble, but logic and common sense didn’t matter.

Everyone else was doing it so it’s okay.

In Atomic Habits, there’s a study by Solomon Asch that proves this point.

A group was shown a card with one line and another card with three lines.