Welcome to The Interruption

We strive to teach young people how to navigate and interrupt irrational group behavior that can result in acts of violence and bullying. Many acts that involve violence revolve around a group caught up in irrational behavior, with no one willing to speak up against it. This unwillingness to speak up may be because of a fear of being ostracized by the group or a fear of retaliation. This new approach, called Interruption, teaches people that by simply suggesting something, anything else, it may interrupt the group mentality and free others to also disagree.

In a study by Soloman Asch, he showed how powerful this group mentality could be. He had a group of participants sit in a room and answer a variety of questions based on visual acuity. The questions in the test where very simple, for example the group was asked which of three lines was the longest, the answer being obvious. Unbeknownst to one of the group members, the rest were all paid actors who had been instructed to give the same wrong answer. Being swayed by the group, the subject would join with the other members and give the same wrong answer 75 percent of the time. This is often how groups function and why bullying and acts of violence can escalate, because no one can speak up in opposition or are swayed by the group, even if they know it’s wrong. In the case of Tony’s murder, the three boys started by talking about mugging someone and the plan soon escalated to a drive by shooting. The boy who ended by pulling the trigger claimed that he didn’t want to do it but he was so harassed by the other two that he feared being ostracized by the group. This is the same claim that many make in acts of bullying/violence. But what if there was a way to break this irrational behavior without having to directly speak up against it?

In a further study by Soloman Asch, he examined just that, “how the role of a single individual can shift and entire group’s opinion” but it may not be in the way you would expect. The same study with the questions on visual acuity was conducted again, however this time one of the actors was instructed to answer differently then the group. This was the dissenter of the group and in almost every case when the dissenter spoke up, it gave the subject “permission” to go against the group and give the correct answer. Even more surprising is that this dissenter didn’t even need to give the right answer; it just had to be a different answer then the group. The dissenter interrupted the group mentality, and gave freedom to others to speak up in opposition. We believe this could be a powerful tool in reducing bullying and violence. We all know that speaking up against the group can be very effective in interrupting irrational behavior, but for many, especially young people, this can be very difficult. However, if we teach them that when faced with something they don’t agree with, to suggest something else, anything else, it may break the group thinking and free up others to disagree as well. With this technique we can change the outcomes of some of these situations.