When researching for my 2011 book Homo Imitans, I was interested in the human ability to copy from our environment. This is what the book was about. We did some research that the occupied a good third part at the back of the book. Many of you know that this is at the core of Viral Change™ where we orchestrate peer-to-peer interactions based on the pull ability of us humans, being pulled to a particular environment that can be constructed, and us pulling other people’s behaviours towards ours.
Environments of accountability, of teamwork, of innovation or customer centrism for example can be created not by training or indoctrination but by the power of a small groups of individuals under some planned guidance to multiply a good behaviour. This is what Viral Change™ does.
But Homo Imitans has a deep biological foundation as well in our ability to synchronize ( a form of copying) our behaviours or even our own physiology.
Here are some examples.
Girls friends living together in colleges have been found to synchronize their monthly menstruation cycle.
Try yawning and you’ll see how many people yawn around you.
Start clapping in a group and see how everybody not only claps but follows the same rhythm, so you hear a well sequenced sound, not the logical random aggregation of everybody’s individual clapping which is what could be expected.
Jogging in a place where a group is formed, progressively creates a pack (of often strangers) running at a common never pre-agreed speed.
Etc,
Homo Sapien does not like being reminded of this. It gets very offended.
I love annoying him with these examples
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