Sociology prof explains riot: Young people are dumb | CTV News

While I don't think the professor is really getting her money's worth from her degree (the rest of us could come up with the same conclusion) it's nice to see someone in academia with some common sense.

It's as good an explanation as any of the rest. Plus, violence and destruction is lots of fun certain parts of our animal brains.

I think revelling in wanton destruction, while engaging in senseless violence is a purely human thing.

Well, sociologists aren't exactly intellectual giants either.

Nope, but kudos for honesty.

They teach GPA boosters.

I don't think so. First of all, peoples' IQs don't really change until they get quite old, when they drop. You are actually smarter from about 10 to the end of your reproductive usefulness, at which point you start to get dumber.

Secondly, the entire basis of her argument was that when she was an undergrad she saw the same thing. Anecdotal stories are nice, but when you have PhD you should be offering up some actual evidence to support your conjecture.

Is age a factor? If you created a similar environment for 40-somethings would you get a riot? Why or why not? Those are the questions that should be asked.

Diminished sense of responsibility because the chance of being caught is perceived as low. Which is probably an accurate perception. People deemed, even for the moment, to have authority or to be in control, are followed.

I listened to Peter Gabriel's Milgram's 37 when I was a young teenager. I asked my mom what Milgram's 37 was and she didn't know but (being my mom) took me to the library. (Yes kids this was the Internet. Is Internet still capitalized?)

Milgram's 37 refers to a compliant 37 out of 40 subjcts in psychologist Milgram's Experimet 18. Milgram ran an experiment that brought volunteers in to shock subjects who wouldn't answer questions put to them. 37 out of 40 administered shocks. 65%--SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT--of the volunteers gave what they thought was a lethal shock to the subjects, whom they did not even know.





We Do What We're Told lyrics
milgram's 37

we do what we're told
we do what we're told
we do what we're told
told to do

one doubt
one voice
one war
one truth
one dream

Peter Gabriel

feels like it should end with... 'gimme some fried chicken'

I don't think so.

Irrespective of your points, which have validity, she has pointed out that these people are dumb, and not necessarily because they have low IQ, but because they choose to place themselves into situations where it is so much easier to make dumb decisions (massive drunken parties have a certain degree of predictability - housewreckers are called housewreckers for a reason)

How often, after the Vancouver Riots, did you hear the terms 'disenfranchised youth' or 'bored youth' or whatever other explanation for the fact that a bunch of drunken hooligans chose to start a donnybrook in downtown Vancouver.

Nope, I agree with her - these people are just plain dumb, though I'd caveat it by saying they are just plain 'life dumb'.

I always thought that a group mentality usually correlated with a significant drop in intelligence.

I say it's because not enough god fearing kids anymore, they are all atheists.

They may have intelligence but they are well dumb. We have a saying in the Brit military. Lighthouse in the desert. Very bright but not very useful.

Plus they have a very narrow view of the world outside their own social circle. They also seem to believe any anti-establishment message they are told.

Add all these factors in and you get the self-entitled idiots I met at the G20 en masse.

I meet a few every other day now but they are not emboldened by being with fifty of their equally shallow and idiotic chums.

I would go as far to say it is because they do not fear the consequences of their actions because they will get a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle if their parents hire a good (or weaselly) enough lawyer.

I'll go with a third of each...
...mob mentality
...look what I can do
...booze (optional)

Remember when you were young, you wanted to do something and your argument to your parents was, "Well Bobby's doing it". The parent's response was, "If Bobby jumped off a bridge, would you still want to do it". The problem with this argument is that the answer would have been yes.

I'm sure that if a person in a mob jumped from a 10th floor balcony, you'd have a few following him off, especially if there were others taking pictures or video.