How your favourite celebrity is successfully turning you into a sadist

Groupthink, parasocialism, and electrocuting strangers

It’s 1961, and a psychologist called Stanley Milgram invites a group of people into a study. They are told that a man is attached to wires that electrocute him, all you need to do is press the button. They are then asked to read questions to the man, and electrocute him when he got an answer wrong. The man screamed and flinched in pain, but the people kept pressing the button when he answered incorrectly. “Why did you do it?” they are asked. “Because I was told to,” came the reply.

And today, things are exactly the same: people are still hurting each other because some random person who they perceive as more important than them encourages and even tells them to. That little dopamine hit off being in the tribe, being in charge, being approved of by your superiors, and being able to freely kick someone who is doing something wrong.

Anger, hatred, dopamine, and belonging: what are you being radicalised into saying or doing?

It doesn’t matter what issue we focus on here, before you assume I’m some genocidal anti-Palestine extremist or anti-abortion nut: this could be literally any political agenda, and on any side. Yes: all sides in a conflict have violent, abusive, and scary elements to them, and more so than we’d like to admit. We could be talking about internet drama…