THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY As humans we seem to be hard wired to be drawn towards people who behave like ourselves. Numerous studies have shown that when presented with a range of equally competent and well qualified candidates, employers will, statistically, lean towards selecting those who see the world as they do. This mirroring, as psychologists refer to it, is a form of validation. The employer is subconsciously looking for employees who will validate their ideas, outlook and world view. The journalist Matthew Syed has researched this further. He suggests that brain scans show that when others reflect our own thoughts back to us, it stimulates the pleasure centres in our brain. This bias extends to the way we establish our social groups and even our relationships. And this trait makes sense from a purely evolutionary perspective; shared characteristics lead to shared values and this in turn gives a group cohesion. Cohesion makes the group stronger and more likely to defend one another. On the whole, when the problems we face have been straightforward, such as lighting a fire or building a shelter, what social scientists term, “linear problems” this model has proved more than adequate. It has allowed us as humans to evolve from tribes, into towns, and then cities, developing over time into countries and nations. However, we are victims of our own success; the world we live in is no longer neat and linear. The world is three dimensional, global, interconnected and multi-cultural, and so too are the problems we face. The problems of countries like China or Japan are no longer confined to the other side of the world, and in such a world the human tendency towards homogeneity is at best a disadvantage and at worst, dangerous. The problem is that when all the people in a group think the same way, it creates collective blindspots. We all have these blindspots in our perspective, and the challenge with them is that we are rarely even aware we have them until our viewpoint is challenged by a perspective or opinion beyond our everyday frame of reference. A lack of diversity in the ideas we consume is dangerous, because we never question our blindspots. I hope all Canfordians will approach this year’s festival with the curiosity to embrace new ideas, the enthusiasm to share and discuss these ideas with their friends and teachers and the resilience to have their ideas challenged in turn. We live in increasingly complex and turbulent times. The modern world is continuously asking new questions of the individual in society. The answers to these questions will not come from closed minded or tribal thinking. The answers will come from listening to and learning from a genuinely diverse range of perspectives. Maybe, just maybe, the seeds of the ideas that will change the world tomorrow will be sown over the course of the next few days. Jamie Ings, Head of Enrichment
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