Brandon Toh

10-8-08

Response

How does the need to belong and be accepted by others cloud our judgment and keep people from making good choices?

It clouds our good judgment because most people have an urge to stay with a group, and to be accepted by other people. Sometimes people are scared to do what they think is right, because they are scared that others would hurt them, or dislike them because of what they did. Since we want that we might do something without thinking about the consequences.

An example of this would be drugs. If some of your friends were taking drugs and they asked you to join them, your fear of not being accepted by your friends might urge you to take drugs, regardless of the consequences.

Another example of this would be the wave. In the book a lot of people joined the wave and others wanted to join partly because a lot of people were joining. The result was that the wave expanded, and spread throughout the entire school, some people only joined because their friends were joining. Others only joined because they were scared about what would happen to them if they didn't.

There are many reasons why the need might cloud good judgement. One reason is fear that people won't respect you. Another is fear that them might harm you. Some examples of this are; taking drugs, and joining an organisation, such as the wave.