During my break, I decided to go to the Sauder library to study and get some readings done. I sat down and all of a sudden, two Sauder boys that I know, started yelling at each other about something that happened yesterday and something to do with inappropriate things to one of the boy’s girlfriend. Everyone dropped their pencils and looked up to see what’s going on. A few people in the library screamed “Nobody wants to see this, take it outside please.” One of the boy knew that the yelling caught a lot of attention so he got fired up and pushed the other boy to make a big scene. Both of the boys’ faces were tomato red but the crowd kept saying “Take it outside!”, they eventually ended the fight and walked opposite ends. As you can see, mob mentality is a BIG factor. If the people in the library chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, things would have been worse.
This also reminded me of how I choose which restaurants I want to eat at. When a new restaurant opens up, my heart desires to try new foods but my mind wouldn’t let me until I see how many people are in the restaurant before I enter. If I see nobody in the restaurant, I most likely wouldn’t walk in because it’s extremely awkward for me. If there’s a lot of people, I probably will run in and try to get a number to wait for a table.
Another example about mob mentality is buying jade. When I went back to China to visit family, one of the main things my family values is jade. For a business, it’s extremely hard to get someone to buy jade. A mob mentality strategy is the successful way to get more customers to buy jade. I noticed when we go to jade stores, the manager or sales associate will ask what your preferences is in jade (colours, styles, Buddha, zodiac), they get you interested, however, they also know you feel uneasy buying it. Therefore, they have their elder family members come by and compliment how it’s beautiful the jade you picked and bargain to buy it. This tactic will make you to pull your wallet out to buy it ASAP. This tactic is successful in making money, however, if you cheat the customers as in giving them fake jade, they probably will not come back and the business will eventually declare bankruptcy.
