a. What challenges did you overcome throughout this inquiry project? How did you go about overcoming these challenges?
Some challenges that I had to overcome were the lack of resources, websites, statistics and images that I could use for the research aspect of my blog posts. Deindividuation is a fairly new concept and term as Neuroscience (the study of the brain) is still a developing field. For my first few blog posts, I realized that the articles were getting very repetitive and I wanted to look at specific examples to better respond to my inquiry question. In order to add to the effect of my blog posts, I intertwined my opinion with facts to draw conclusions that are not represented with statistics. By doing this method, it helped me better understand what I was learning and the importance. In addition, to overcome these challenges, I researched a few experiments that tested deindividuation. I was able to draw conclusions between the results of the studies to my overall inquiry question.
b. How did this inquiry change the way you think?
This inquiry made me better understand human mindset and the result of their actions. When I first read the article that people were yelling at an individual to jump off a large building to their death, I thought that these humans committed disgusting and immoral actions. I still believe that their actions were horrible, but upon the research that I have done, I can better make excuses for their choices. While we still have control over ourselves, but as humans within a group, we cannot help but adopt the norms and actions within a group. As people, it is our desire to belong within the groups that we are apart of. This inquiry change made me really realize the importance of this human need and how fragile our identity can be. I believe that I am a person that is very sure of my morals and my ethics, so it is hard to imagine other people that feel the need to change their actions to belong. This Inquiry project has further improved my perspective to understand more people in the world that are very different from me.
c. How did this investigation impact your future decisions?
This investigation has further solidified the challenges that are present in the world due to humans and their natural instincts. I have always been interested into going into the field of Neuroscience to study more about the brain, and I can confirm that this is still a path I wish to take. In my last Inquiry projects, I have went further into Early Childhood Development as I have researched how much of an impact the first 7 years of our life have on our perception of ourselves, others and the world. In this Inquiry project, I shifted away from Early Childhood Development, and while it was a good change, I believe that the way to solve these problems is in the root of early years in life. This investigation has convinced me that not only is studying the field of Neuroscience important for me, but also Early Childhood Development.
d. What impact will this investigation have on others locally and/or globally?
I believe that many problems can be improved globally if more people understood the importance of maintaining their identity within a group. As I reflected within my blog posts, people radically change their personality when they are conforming to a group. They lose a sense of morality, accountability and identity. I believe that if humans all knew how big of an negative impact that we have when we are in a group, such as yelling at somebody to commit suicide (New York Suicide Experiment), we could be more conscious of making better decisions. As I discover more and more within my inquiry projects, there are so many areas of brain research that need to be studied to have a much better impact on the world. As humans, we do not want to admit our downfalls or our mistakes, which makes it so hard for change to happen. This investigation could bring more awareness to deindividuation, but it could also not change anybody’s opinion. What matters is doing the research and having a voice to explain how this investigation could and should have a positive impact on the world.