Yesterday I watched a very interesting movie called “The Experimenter”. The film is based on the true story of famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who in 1961 conducted a series of radical behavior experiments at Yale University that tested the willingness of ordinary humans to obey an authority figure while administering electric shocks to strangers. In the first half of the film, it is shown how the experiments are conducted, with nearly every test subject succumbing to the pressure of the circumstances and administering shocks to a stranger, despite the stranger begging him to stop.
The study concluded that the overwhelming majority of people will “obey” the orders of a perceived “authority figure” even if these orders go against their feelings of normal human decency. This study was performed only 15 years after the end of World War 2, am era in which many people committed atrocities attributing these to “I was ordered to do it”.
I am going to bring the concept of “obedience” to the weight control arena. There are many circumstances when we are asked to follow certain eating/drinking activities by perceived “authority figures”. Here are some examples:
- Our parents/other older family members encouraging us to eat a second plate of food and/or engage in dessert
- Colleagues/supervisors at work bringing donut, cookies and other high-carb foods to work and implore us to join everyone else in eating them
During a long-term weight control journey try hard to NOT succumb to the influence/obedience of others that are in effect, derailing your efforts to become healthier and happier. We do not need to always be “People Pleasers”, especially when it comes to impacting your health in a negative way.
And here is an old song from the sound track of “The Experimenter” movie…a show tune from South Pacific. Here is Frank Sinatra’s version of “Some Enchanted Evening”.
