Walk Away Part II: Model Behavior
Model Behavior.
Many moons ago, when I thought beauty was more important than brains, I was a model. Not for long. And during that time, I also learned that not all models are stupid. Fun fact: Cindy Crawford was actually valedictorian of her high school and was offered an academic scholarship for chemical engineering at Northwestern.
But I want to talk about a different kind of modeling. Psychology was always interesting to me, and in the 2 semesters I took in college, I did quite well in it. I always joked that if I did college over, I’d double major in Marketing & Psychology so I could figure out the “why” behind purchase decisions and rake in my millions.
There was an interesting term that I learned that was called Behavioral Modeling. Essentially, there’s a lot of truth to the statement, “monkey see, monkey do.” Humans are actually relatively easy to program
Learning a behavior doesn’t happen simply by observing a particular model, rather, there are 4 steps that must be followed if you want the learnings to stick.
They are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.
First, you have to be paying attention to what the model is doing. Secondly, you have to remember what the model is actually doing. Third, you need to be able to reproduce what you’ve paid attention to and remembered. And finally, you need to be motivated to live it out.
This is largely dependent on how the model was treated. The more positive the reinforcement, the more likely the person will be motivated to live out the behavior. This is known as vicarious reinforcement. If the model was punished, you’re less likely to live out the behavior. This is called vicarious punishment.
Most of the learning in my late teens and early 20s was influenced by the musicians I listened to, my teachers, my professors, and my peers.
I went to the Vans Warped Tour every year from 15–23. I was avidly involved in the concert and music scene, and was in a band as well. I was surrounded by people who thought and acted and thought just like me.
George W. Bush’s War on Terror had taken a negative turn. I had swallowed up everything in Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11 documentary as well as Zeitgeist (was 9/11 in inside job?!) and marched to the beat of punk rockers everywhere as we wanted not only to Rock Against Bush (Vol I & II) but also Rock the Vote. These were all avenues of telling me how corrupt George Bush was, how evil the Republican Party was, how conservatism was destroying America, how the rich were all evil — and how great liberalism and progressivism was.
On a side note, I still love a lot of classical liberalism to this day. I wish that the Democratic Party would adopt more of those ideals, and I’d likely consider their platform again.
But anyway, I paid attention to what my “models” were doing, retained what they were saying, replicated what they did, and was motivated to carry the torch. I’m sure — no, I know — I was biased because I was in a band, and saw so many of my favorite musicians on stage championing against GW and I thought, “My band could do this! We could write politically charged music and rally the masses to take down the man!”
I remember seeing Henry Rollins Love Letter to Anne Coulter. To be honest, I had never heard of her prior to his rant, but when her name came up, I had already made up my mind she was evil because I loved Henry Rollins and believed what he said. (After seriously studying her and learning about her several years later, I don’t think she’s evil. However, I don’t believe she is an overly pleasant human either.)
I had never been presented with another viewpoint, and no one had ever given me information on what else I could think. I never did my own research or was told that my views were wrong. It seemed that the more I touted the talking points of “the left” the more I was praised — so why would I question anything?
And then, something happened. I like to call them… The 4 Horseman of the Liberal Apocalypse.
