Have you witnessed alarming mob effects such as lynching? Riots and wartime atrocities occur during periods of deindividuation. Crowds give one the opportunity to hide and also allow one to share the blame. This reduces the sense of individual responsibility. Uniforms and war-paint also help hide one’s true identity. Even sunglasses can support aggressive attitudes as they hide the eyes, A very important part of the individual. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. UNDAUNTED we carry our sense of IDENTITY and are well aware of how we relate to others.
2. POTENT way we lose ourselves is becoming part of a large group, such as a mob or army.
3. GETTING engrossed in a task, meditation or contemplative activities are also vital triggers.
4. RESULTS include loss of personal identity and gaining of the social identity of the group.
5. AA paradox: when you let go of yourself, returning can be an exhilarating experience.
6. DDUE external stimulation helps as it distracts from internal chatter and rumination.
7. EEXPLAINED here is why orchestra music is played loudly alongside dramatic visual lighting.

Have you witnessed football teams getting into aggressive or defensive moods? As they either throw caution to the winds trying to score, or desperately try to avoid being caught out. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. USUALLY, when in groups, individuals make decisions about risk differently from when alone.
2. PEOPLE in groups are likely to make riskier decisions, as shared risk makes personal risk feel less.
3. GAINFULLY, individuals may not want to let compatriots down, and so become risk-averse.
4. REALLY the overall tendency toward a shift in risk perception is called choice shift or cautious shift.
5. ARDENT greater risks are chosen as emotional bonds decrease anxiety and risk is perceived as shared.
6. DELIBERATE high risk-takers are more confident and may persuade others to take greater risks.
7. ENTRENCHED attention to a possible action makes one comfortable with it and perceives less risk.

Have you analysed the ABORTION debate? Pro-life and pro-choice individuals perceive themselves as much farther apart than they are in reality. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. UNPATRIOTIC, immoral, close-minded — blindly seeing those across the aisle this way.
2. POLARISATION as traditionally defined has focused on basic policy differences — “issue polarisation.”
3. GNAWING “affective polarisation” leads to dislike and distrust of those on the other side.
4. REAL avoidance of affiliation is indicated by who we choose to associate with or agree on basic goals.
5. ATTRIBUTION (false) here is that they have been exposed to a different set of facts and information.
6. DESIGNATION: they are lazy, under a distorting influence, or unable to reach a rational conclusion.
7. EXTREMELY interpreting the other side’s views beyond reality leads to greater intergroup differences.

Loyalty to the group, sacrifice for it, hatred and contempt for outsiders, all grow together, common products of the same situation. Each group nourishes its own pride and vanity, boasts itself superior, exalts its own divinities, and looks with contempt on outsiders. Each group thinks its own folkways the only right ones, and if it observes that other groups have other folkways, these excite its scorn. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. UNDISGUISED — you belong to a group and realise someone else is also in that group.
2. PROACTIVELY you tend to have positive views of that person and give them preferential treatment.
3. GAINFULLY, this works because we socially build self-esteem through a relative sense of belonging.
4. REALISTICALLY, the presence of an in-group member robustly reminds us of that belongingness.
5. AT the same time, out-group people are viewed more negatively and may receive worse treatment.
6. DESCRIBED in terms that depersonify them when they conform to the out-group stereotype.
7. EVEN finding rational arguments about how unpleasant or immoral they are is what in-groups do.

If I know I like chicken, then my mood will not affect my having bacon for breakfast. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. UNLESS mood surpasses certain core conditions, it has no essential effect on our judgement.
2. PURPOSIVELY, it has to OVERRIDE forces that would normally lead to the ‘standard’ judgement.
3. GENERALLY, mood has no effect on judgement when we are trying to satisfy strong directional goals.
4. RETRIEVING a simple pre-formed conclusion directly, based on prior judgement, makes mood affectless.
5. AFFECT upon our judgement by mood occurs when we use short-cut methods for making decisions.
6. DULY using “How would I feel?” evaluations exposes us to being affected by our CURRENT mood.
7. ELABORATE reasoning, using substantive processes, makes mood’s influence not so strong.

A listener may completely disregard opinions that go against their own personal views. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. UNDERSTAND: Selective Exposure has been defined as “Congeniality Bias” or “Confirmation Bias.”
2. PEOPLE favour information which reinforces pre-existing views while avoiding contradictory information.
3. GRANTED, one selects specific aspects of exposed information to incorporate into one’s mindset.
4. REALLY, these selections are made based on personal perspectives, beliefs, attitudes, and decisions.
5. ACUTE dissection of facts leads to selection of favourable evidence and ignoring the unfavourable.
6. DELICATE balance between one’s world-view and one’s environment is called cognitive equilibrium.
7. EVENTUAL mismatch leads one to find this “inherently dissatisfying” — Cognitive Dissonance.

Gilbert, et el. (1993) asked people to read crime reports and recommend prison sentences. This included some false statements which were marked in red to indicate them as such. In normal situations, they were not affected by the false statements. However, when they were overloaded by additional work, the false statements affected their judgment. Here are SEVEN ways to ULTIMATELY UPGRADE your awareness!

1. UNDERSTANDING and BELIEF can be derived from contrasting views of two prominent philosophers.
2. PEOPLE take in information by paying attention to it first — this is Descartes (1596–1650).
3. GOING forward, they DECIDE what to do with that data, which includes BELIEVING or rejecting it.
4. REALLY, the act of understanding information is already believing it — Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677).
5. AFTER this we may change our minds, but until that time we do BELIEVE everything.
6. DILIGENT solution: people initially BELIEVE everything they see and hear (“SEEING is BELIEVING”).
7. EVENTUALLY, they assess whether it is true or not, and either reject or continue to believe things.