Question

How do people in your classes, neighborhood, or clique use shame, ridicule, and gossip as a means of social control similar to how people do in other small-scale societies? Where does the feeling of shame come from? Why is ridicule so powerful a social force in the lives of people? How effective is this for maintaining social control in small groups? How has this technique designed for use in small groups changed with the invention of social media?

Think of how you feel when someone uses this technique on you OR when you use it on someone else. Anthropologists studying gossip, shame, and ridicule have observed that people can be influenced by ridicule only if the matter being ridiculed feels genuinely embarrassing to the one being ridiculed. (For Example: If your professor tried to ridicule you for not knowing advanced astrophysics, you would not be embarrassed because you probably have not studied astrophysics. Therefore, you wouldn’t feel ashamed.) Explore this together.

Answer 1

In the social circle with whom i hang out currently, people use gossips as a means of passing time with one another and also as a way to ridicule the people for the sins they do. They usually involve in gossips in their free time and no matter how educated and well off they are, this thing is so dirty but they enjoy getting involved in it. They try to use gossips as a means of spreading ill about someone, boycotting someone, trying to take our personal grudges against the people and also grouping people. This is really harmful for the society.I feel gossiping in small scale or rural areas would also be ugly but with the exception that people are still a little more sensitive to each other's feelings and sentiments and this helps them to be moulded in a better manner but not a good one eventually. I was once boycotted in ,my classroom by a group of mean girls who never agreed with my straightforward nature and simple way of dressing. They always felt that i had so much more to do and so less to give to their group that they plotted against me. It was a hard phase of 2 years in my life but i never gave in and tried to focus on my studies as a means to always come up with something that keeps me busy and happy.