summary and analysis of chapter 5

Summary and Analysis of “The Bipolar epidemic and the Chameleon Effect” Chapter 5 in “Sway”

            In SWAY, The irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, The Brafman brothers are breaking down many examples of ways people can and are being swayed.  People act irrationally without recognizing what is going on.  Ori and Rom Brafman are even trying to sway their readers into believing that everyone acts irrationally by being swayed. 

            In chapter five, the brothers, use many examples of the sway of diagnosis and labeling.    The focus is on the epidemic of bipolar diagnosis in children from 1994 to 2003.  More examples they use are putting Military members into “command potential” categories versus them taking their comprehensive test and comparing the scores with the categories they were put into; another test was given when researchers had men call woman with only given a bio of them and a fake picture.  The conversations went as well as what the men thought the women would be based the picture.  Senior citizens were also given a test to see if the way they felt about old age would actually affect them later on in life.  And then there was the research of the “love bridge.”  They are saying that weather we label people negative or positive, they are going to take on whatever their label is.  The Brafman brothers are calling this the Pygmalion and Golem effects.  Each example they give they are trying to prove that people are swayed in how they treat others based on their labels and that people start acting the part once they are labeled.

            I do believe if you are told that a person acts or is a certain way, you are going to treat them that way and not form your own opinion of them, and as far as being diagnosed with something, if you are told it, you will start acting it.  There are many instances in life to justify this.  If a woman is told they are beautiful every day, and details of a woman’s beauty are pointed out, she is going to be swayed to do everything she can to be beautiful.  If a teacher is told nothing but negative things about a student they will be getting, that teacher will already have an opinion that this student has nothing positive about them.   In this chapter of Sway, they give many more examples of this, but some that they use are great, while others can be controversial or just don’t fit in under this type of sway.

            Using the bipolar example is great.  The authors went into great detail with this, showing many examples of research on it.  When things like bipolar came out into the public through media or research, eyebrows were raised and people started to ask more questions about it.  But I’m wondering, Is it that these children and adults were already showing signs of bipolar and didn’t want to ask the doctors about it because they were too scared to be different and judged, but when the media focused on it, they now thought it was ok to question their minds, or did they read about the signs and think they now have bipolar?  Or is it that the Psychiatrist doing the research was trying to sway these patients that they suffer from bipolar and other mental disorders because of a little bit of emotion in their lives?  If this is the case, the patients were labeled bipolar and now show the symptoms of being bipolar.

             When the authors talked about the medication usage to treat bipolar, and it showed that research proved that the medication only worked a minimal amount of time, I think this was brilliantly put in this chapter.  This really shows me that patients were truly being swayed to believe they were bipolar.  The majority were not actually chemically and hormonally bipolar.  In the end, they were diagnosed and started acting the part.

            During the military testing, the commanders were proving that once labeled something, you will start acting the part.  Yes, this is true.  But when it came time for the soldiers to take this written test to acquire their new knowledge on what they learned while at training, the military members tested on how they were labeled.  It is quoted, “Without realizing it, the trainees had taken on the characteristics of the diagnoses ascribed to them.”(pg. 99)  Is it because the training officers didn’t want to waste their time giving quality and equal training to those who they were told didn’t already show major potential, or is this just how the soldiers really were?   Had the soldiers not been diagnosed certain ways, maybe all of them would have gotten equal training and tested to their true potential.

            The most interesting example used is the test where the men are given a bio and a fake picture on a woman and asked to call them.  The phone call was based purely on this picture.  I don’t understand why men think because a woman is beautiful she would be more outgoing and easy to talk to, or because a woman is just ordinary she would be somewhat dull.   But this shows me true labeling.  When people have certain opinions of others that’s how they start to be treated.  The way you treat others, is the way they will start to feel and begin to interact. People feed off of one another’s feelings towards them.  So, of course if a man calls a woman and is short with her and not very engaged in the conversation, the woman won’t be either.  This section in the chapter is perfect for showing that when labels are put on people, because of the actions of others, those being labeled will become what others think they are.

            When the elderly were asked their opinions on what old age meant to them, I am not seeing how this example is good for this type of sway.  I understand that if you constantly are speaking negative about things, that’s the way life will turn out, but when you find something positive in every situation, there will be more positive outcomes.  The more stress you bring into your life, more stress is to follow.  But how is this being swayed by labeling or diagnosis?  Maybe these elderly people just aged well or aged a little more quickly.  I can see this being swayed by their emotions, in that their emotions have affected their overall internal being.  If you say it, it will be, but not labeling.  I feel like the authors should have gone into more detail with this example to help the audience understand where they were coming from.

            The “Love Bridge” is a section that I found very interesting.  It is showing a different side of the sway being portrayed.  Is it merely saying that the men crossing the shaky bridge are more adventurous than others?  And by saying this, they are being labeled as go getters and risk takers.  But by saying the only reason the men called the woman was because their adrenaline and heart rate were elevated because of the rush, I don’t necessarily agree with.  These men have already been said to be risk takers, so I believe most risk takers would take a chance at a phone conversation with a woman, regardless of walking across this enormously high bridge or not. 

            Although throughout this chapter, I would have liked to have seen more detail about the studies done, I believe that Ori and Rom Brafman have proven than the sway of labeling and diagnosis exist.  Ori understands the mind and how people think, while Rom is a deep thinker and can pick apart other’s thoughts.  They both have the background to do the research, and by the end of this chapter, they have given enough evidence to say that “we’re all psychological chameleons,” who are always swaying and being swayed. (pg.109)