Calvin Winkler
Mr. Detloff
English 12
9 Jan. 2014

In our world today almost every thing that happens is influenced by something more than just yourself. People our influenced by society and what others around them think an do. In Doris Lessing's passage Group Minds it shows us how we are influenced by society and the people close to us. Many people know what they are being influenced by or who is influencing them but still do nothing about it. Psychologists have done many studies to prove that we are influenced by groups. Even though we have the knowledge on how we are influenced we still fall into the pressure. One example Lessing told us is when there is to pieces of wood that are extremely similar but have a slight difference. An individual is left out of a big group and the group will say the wood lengths are the same. The group and individual will argue and in most cases the individual will finally give in and say that they are the same. This example shows how we give in to peer pressure due to "Group Minds." The individual knew that the wood pieces we slightly different but gave in because that was the easy way out and that's what everyone was telling her. We need to be aware of this and understand what is influencing us. Lessing proposes we guard against these influences by using the information we have about ourselves and use it to improve our lives. She is telling us to stop and think about what we know before we make a safe and sound decision. The first