Are Aspies more prone to pack mentality

[Gomendosi]

I wondered if a person who is high functioning on the spectrum (so they understand their actions) would tend to be more readily involved with, or the source of, pack mentality. I have witnessed the detriment of hive mind before in my life, where 1 person takes offence or suffers a slight and those around them rally to their defence whether deserved or not. It can actually be quite disturbing if used for nefarious purposes, like say, having one person pick at another quietly until they snap quite volubly, and then people only see the reaction and think the aggressor has been unfairly treated and rush to their defence, who then can step back and watch as the sharks devour their victim.
I am curious to know if we think an Aspie would institute such a ploy, but more specifically I wonder if Aspies would fall into the category of those who blindly follow the pattern set by others, would you be willing to go against your better judgement if everyone else was doing it or would you think independently?

 

[Rudy Schmidt]

I can on occasion be manipulative. It's not something I'm proud of, but I see it as compensating for my lack of ability to handle confrontations. I'm pretty socially skilled, for an aspie - this is because I've watched people and how yet act and to what stimulus, and try always abide by similar patterns. This has allowed me to map their behavior to a fairly accurate degree.

As for independent thinking, although I often have trouble with figures of speech etc, I like to think I'm pretty independent in my thinking. I don't believe I'd be really susceptible to manipation myself, but I could be wrong - I've doubted myself a lot more since I learned about my AS.

Edit: I'm not bragging about those things - I'm really not proud of it - but I'm being blunt in the interest of the discussion.

Edit-edit: Sorry for the abysmal number of errors in that post - I typed that on my phone and the predictive text seems determined to make me look like a total goomba.

 

[King_Oni]

I'm not sure if it's pack mentality but rather the fact that some might relate to certain issues that are placed upon a single individual.

And looking at this forum for instance, a lot of people here do have similar experiences, hence when someone gets called out, people will find that they are attacked personally as well.

 

[Judge]

Interesting question. I'd think few Aspies would have a pack mentality in the most sincere and generic sense. That in general it's simply not our nature. Equally I don't think it disqualifies us from recognizing when it's beneficial to appear as such for pragmatic reasons. I suppose it really depends on the circumstances and what's at stake.

Such as when our absent-minded underwriting manager used to cavalierly give questionable orders. I'd process them in accordance with the corporate chain of command because I had to. Always made sure to get his signature where required. We never openly argued such orders because we knew where that would likely lead to.

Meanwhile another co-worker and myself would routinely photocopy all of the pertinent paperwork and keep them in our own personal files at home, in the event of a lawsuit or termination. We might not be true-blue "team players", but neither were we stupid.

 

[Christy]

I don't know about the manipulation in order to get a victim to explode hense making them a target, I know it goes on but I'm not very good at spotting it. But I've seen where people rush to someone's defence when clearly they were the provoker. I've mostly observed this of females; both nt and aspie. I guess the thing about aspie females though, is they seem to become bullheaded and don't back down, long after when I assume an nt female would. Perhaps they're even more aggressive too.

 

[Madhatter333]

I have always felt that we aspies don't typically subscribe to herd mentality and most literature seems to support my opinion. As a child I was often disciplined in school for arguing with teachers even though I was correct, as this is undermining their authority.

I guess what I'm trying to say is our naivé nature makes us easy to manipulate, but it also allows for an uninhibited inquiry into everything we experience. We ask inappropriate questions because we can have more curiosity than sense, which can create some unique, non-herd mentality people.

 

[Rudy Schmidt]

I have always felt that we aspies don't typically subscribe to herd mentality and most literature seems to support my opinion. As a child I was often disciplined in school for arguing with teachers even though I was correct, as this is undermining their authority.

I've read that arguing with teachers when you believe them to be wrong is a common trait in Aspie children and adolescents. I never did this personally, as I knew that teachers reacted badly to it, and was always afraid of getting in trouble. However, I did this absolutely relentlessly with my parents, who I felt more secure with. Used to drive them up the wall. Do you think it's the same principle? I wrote off the "arguing with teachers" symptom for myself because it wasn't something I did much, but I totally forgot that it was a major MAJOR problem with my parents, all the way up into my late teens.

I guess what I'm trying to say is our naivé nature makes us easy to manipulate, but it also allows for an uninhibited inquiry into everything we experience. We ask inappropriate questions because we can have more curiosity than sense, which can create some unique, non-herd mentality people.

I understand this. If somebody is going to ask an awkward question that makes people feel uneasy, you can guarantee it'll be me.

 

[Mattymatt]

I think we should band together. There is strength and support in numbers

 

[SyAn]

I agree with Madhatter333, at least for myself, wholeheartedly. When I was younger I did not even recognise pack-mentality (I did not even notice being bullied until years later).
Oh and I was and still am 'uncommonly' curious - I would ask questions of the plumber/electrician/whoever who came to do some repair/maintenance, I always have zillions of questions - my mum jokes that "why" was the first word I spoke

 

[Sass]

I see this mentality in all people. I am often called out by NTs for using my AS as an 'excuse' for things when trying to explain a viewpoint, but then when trying to explain an alternative viewpoint to aspies I get singled out as someone who just 'doesn't understand' or has some kind of extra privilege because I can speak/was diagnosed late/have assimilated (really?). The pack mentality comes, I think, from wanting to be part of something, and then fighting to the death (either verbally or whatever) to protect its relevance. The relevance comes from the faith in it, at least to me, not from the ability to convince someone you're right. I was actually going to start a thread similar to this, but not pack mentality as such.

I feel as though, and this is a general theory, that almost any human will turn on another who disagrees with them, but only if they have enough back up from people who agree with them, and who think being offended gives you a right to personally attack people. I can disagree with people allllll day, but we could still probably chat over a beer and find some things we have in common. I try really hard not to write people off, because there are so many variables that lead to a statement/opinion/outburst that I'm not privy to.

All people are guilty of this at some point I think. It's neither AS nor NT, it's just people, and probably self-presevation. Like religious vs non-religious, or alternative religion/political view etc etc. It's all the same bucket of apples...