"We have a side to our character that we are generally unaware of—our social personality, the different person we become when we operate in groups of people. In the group setting, we unconsciously imitate what others are saying and doing. We think differently, more concerned with fitting in and believing what others believe. We feel different emotions, infected by the group mood. We are more prone to taking risks, to acting irrationally, because everyone else is. This social personality can come to dominate who we are. Listening so much to others and conforming our behavior to them, we slowly lose a sense of our uniqueness and the ability to think for ourselves. The only solution is to develop self-awareness and a superior understanding of the changes that occur in us in groups. With such intelligence, we can become superior social actors, able to outwardly fit in and cooperate with others on a high level, while retaining our independence and rationality."
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Chap. 14 : Resist the Downward Pull of the Group
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Greene_(American_author)
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Robert Greene (American author)
Robert Greene (born May 14, 1959, in Los Angeles) is an American author specializing in books about strategy, power and seduction. His first book was The 48 Laws of Power (1998), which became a best-seller with more than 1 million copies sold in the US.
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