Group Think is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in a group of people that desires harmony. This causes the group to attempt to minimise conflict by reaching a consensus decision without critical evaluation. Their conformity results in irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcomes. The desire for cohesiveness produces a tendency to agree at all costs.
This woman got it wrong too, but she is getting it wrong without any help from anybody else. Group Think is definitely could be an issue in the first image, but maybe that is not exactly what is happening. You’d think that people would notice. There are many other examples of people getting it wrong as outlined in this article at Medium by Nathaniel Hébert.
The Thinker’s hand on the statue is under his chin, not on the forehead, however these people are posing right under the statue with their hand on their foreheads. Did anybody notice? Did the photographers not notice either? Or did the photographers notice but not say anything?
Maybe, the hand should go on the forehead, rather than under the chin because that is where our brain is. After all, the statue is called The Thinker. Brain = Thinker by association. Obvious, right? So maybe Rodin got it wrong and everybody else has the correct pose.
We store memories and information through association, either through personal experiences, or semantic memories. When personal experience is involved, we may remember ‘grandma’ by picturing in our minds that she is sitting in her rocking chair knitting, and there is the smell of an apple pie in the oven. Semantic memories are word association facts such as knowing that Gitmo is a prison in Cuba. The more associations there are, the more synaptic connections there are in the brain. Most synapses are chemical, and some are an electrical flow of ions between cells.
Our ability to recall a memory has to do with all the synaptic connections in our brain that allow us to recall the information more quickly. If we have previously encountered a word or image many times before, then memory recall is easier. All these previous encounters are called primers. So all the incorrect visual or verbal examples of hand-on-forehead poses could be serving as repeated primers, which imprints this incorrect version as the true one in our minds.
It seems that primers, associative memories, and consensus based stored information is more important to us than evidence that is right there in front of us. This is called, The Thinker Pose Phenomenon (or TTPP).
Scientists think TTPP is even more complex than associative memories and stored consensus information. They think it also has something to do with cognitive dissonance. The term cognitive dissonance is usually used to describe the mental discomfort that results from trying to simultaneously hold two conflicting beliefs or values. We will tend to choose one or the other idea in order to avoid the conflict in our brains.
We tend to be so set in our ways, that we will choose our strongly held synapse connections over obvious logic or evidence. However, the cognitive dissonance of TTPP is even stronger than simply choosing between two conflicting ideas, because it is actually stronger than visual evidence staring at us right in the face.
It’s possible that when we have a strong thought, memory or belief tucked away in our brains, it’s extremely difficult to change that perception or belief once it is chemically set. All the synapses are wired surrounding that firmly held belief or memory and all other incoming information is filtered through that lens of belief and filed in our brains accordingly. TTPP could be evidence that our brains have a self-protective mechanism that actually prevents us from even seeing new information that contradicts chemically set synapses.
It would be difficult to accurately assess this hypothesis and figure out how firmly rooted the association {brain=hand-on-forehead=think} is chemically set. One would have to take a survey of these people doing the incorrect pose. If they for example, have ever seen the statue before; have ever heard of Rodin before; have ever seen somebody do the pose before; or have come across mentions of The Thinker statue in books. Maybe some of the people doing the pose actually noticed it was a different pose, but decided to go along with the Group Think pose anyway.
The hand-on-forehead pose memory is so strong that some people have dubbed The Thinker as one of the many Mandela Effects (I will abbreviate as ME). Many people believe that it is not their memories that are incorrect, but the statue has actually physically changed. Which not possible unless time travel or CERN is involved. All kidding aside, it is actually not outside the realm of possibilities. There are several other copies of this statue, and not all are exactly the same, but all are the hand-under-chin version. It could be that at some point, every single one of the hand-on-forehead statues were vandalised and then replaced with a hand-under-chin version. The Thinker statue at the Cleveland Museum for example, was bombed in 1970. Regardless, it is worth further investigation to discover the truth.
The ME is defined in the mainstream view as ‘misremembering’ or a ‘false memory’ but that is a very inaccurate and oversimplified definition. The bulk of all MEs have to do with brand names. One can verify what ME researchers are calling ‘residue’ (or evidence) of so-called false memories actually being true. For example, one can check the US National Archives and find evidence of old television programming schedules which list the popular cartoon as Looney Toons— not Looney Tunes as it is known today. So ME experiencers are actually correct— their memory of Looney Toons is true.
Instead of thinking that they have superior knowledge about everything, scientists should actually listen to people for once in their lives. It would serve humanity to help us all understand human psychology and the mechanisms of brain function and memory.
Furthermore, we so desperately need these scientists to validate us and our brain functioning mechanisms. Unfortunately, there is currently no remedy for those suffering from TTPP. There are no scientific studies, and no peer-review journal articles on it. There is also no available fact checker information on this strange phenomenon. But the media and politicians are the true experts on it all, so we should all listen to the news and trust the politicians and scientists. Scientists are interested in finding a cure for TTPP so they can make lots of money off of it and all their investors can become billionaires. You can trust the science even though they were caught destroying people’s lives in India and Africa for decades without their consent.
There are those who are suffering from TTPP who have gone completely looney. There are people who place their hand under their chins who suffer symptoms of ‘wrongthink’; and other people who place their hand on their foreheads who suffer symptoms of ‘doublethink’. There are even some people who are not able to think no matter where they place their hand. Scientists are very baffled about it, but you should keep your hands and feet away from your face. Your feet are extremely susceptible to TTPP if you are extremely flexible.
It is extremely worrisome that people are getting things extremely wrong that are staring at them in the face. Plainly obvious things such as: athletes and newscasters keeling over on live TV due to heat exhaustion; 15 doctors all dying at once due to climate change; or all-cause mortality rates skyrocketing because of rising sea levels. They even don’t know that Epstein killed himself while in prison; the economy is completely normal; there is no economic recession; all the shelves are fully stocked; and gas prices are perfectly fine. Sadly, many people are suffering severely from TTPP right now and there is currently no therapeutics or cure available. It is all very SADS.
Rest assured, pharmaceutical companies are diligently working on it and will have a facial spray specifically designed for the forehead and chin within two weeks. We just need to warp speed our human guinea pig trials. We can assure you it will be safe and effective. The only minor side effect of the spray is horrible rashes and blisters all over your forehead and chin as well as skin cancer if you go outside. Oh, and by the way, a rare side effect is that your brains might fall out if you even think of touching your chin ever again… but it is okay to touch your forehead. Studies show that these side effects are not a concern whatsoever, especially since they discovered that touching your forehead does not have any side effects. So FDA approval will be forthcoming with the recommendation that you only touch your your chin, but not your forehead… no… um actually, you can touch your forehead but not your chin. Sorry for the mixup there. After that, you will need to quarantine for two more weeks…. we double-pinky-swear-promise only two weeks to flatten the curve.
In the meantime, make sure you stay inside your home and wear two masks on your forehead for ‘doublethink’ symptoms; and one mask on your chin for ‘wrong think’ symptoms. You don’t have to wear a mask if you are in a restaurant as long as you promise not to think. You will just need to wear a cap that monitors your brain to make sure there are no synaptic connections. Some people who don’t have two brain functioning brain cells to rub together are immune to TTPP, but they are somehow still carriers of brain waves. Scientists are baffled about this, but just to be safe, these people will need spray their whole body three times per day and will not be able go outside at all for the rest of their lives.
Eh… okay, okay… that’s enough of that. There’s no such thing as TTPP as far as I know, but it seems like a plausible explanation. How appropriate that The Thinker figure is part of Rodin’s work The Gates of Hell, and is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. However, this isn’t very funny anymore. These people belong in the looney bin of history, and one way or another, will be facing the consequences of their actions.
Here is some interesting information on relevant topics:
Very interesting thinking process of Simmy’s part.
I have to confess that I never payed attention
Were the hand of the Thinker was, under the
chin or on the forehead. So I learned something❣️