Individual Knowledge And Shared Knowledge

While exploring the relationship between our shared knowledge and our individual knowledge, we see that there is an influence from both directions. Shared knowledge, in this context, is the knowledge belonging to a particular group of people who may be collaboratively working together, either in a separate ‘space and time’ or different places. On the other hand, personal knowledge can be interpreted as knowledge resulting from the influence of my own individual perspective, which includes personal memories as well as emotions. There are many examples where shared socio-cultural knowledge influences personal knowledge, but there is also evidence that personal knowledge often dominates shared knowledge; therefore it is impossible to separate the two forms of knowledge as they are symbiotic. Shared knowledge often dominates personal knowledge, and despite a person’s individual instinct to respond in a certain way, the conventions of their environment will frequently determine their eventual response. Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment provided strong evidence that people will readily conform to social roles, specifically dominant stereotypes, and those stereotypes will shape the behavior and attitude of people, regardless of previous personal knowledge. 24 psychologically stable participants were taken to a mock prison and half of them were assigned the role of prisoner, while the other half were told to fill the role of prison guard. The Zimbardo Stanford prison experiment was designed to investigate how randomly selected people would conform to the roles of prisoners or guards in an exercise that gave them a taste of what life in prison was really like. The results showed that both the prisoners and guards were able to quickly adapt to their new roles, but some guards began to harass prisoners and also acted in a sadistic manner. This led to a conclusion that people were surprisingly ready to conform to the social roles they were expected to simulate, specifically the stereotypical prison guard role. Immersing the ‘guards’ in the prison environment was the crucial factor in creating the stereotypical brutal ‘guard’ behavior. This took precedent over any individual feelings of pity or sympathy for the ‘prisoners’ the roles that people are expected to play strongly affects their individual attitudes and behavioral habits. Although most of the participants had no prior experience of being or meeting a prison guard, they perceived a certain stereotype which may have been learnt through the form of media; i.e., movies which may over-sensationalize the role of guards, portraying them as sadistic in a particular movie role. Clearly social pressure to conform has a strong influence over a person’s behavior, regardless of personal knowledge. However, the 21st century is often noted for its emphasis on individuality, and therefore, it could be argued that pressure to conform, and the dominance of shared knowledge is becoming less powerful over time. Previous psychological experiments on conformity were once considered evidence of participants yielding to a clearly incorrect majority view, but many have since been proven unreliable. The purpose of the Asch experiment was mainly to investigate how social pressure could encourage a person to conform. Asch conducted …show more content…
Furthermore, it is clear that many artists value the earlier conventions set before them. Bach, who, during the Classical music period, adopted a variety of techniques from the earlier Baroque period, was a highly respected musical composer. He was fully aware of the importance of old techniques that originated from the Baroque period. This caused strong reaction because the habit of several other musicians at the time was to simply disregard the techniques from past periods. This further confuses the relationship between shared knowledge and personal knowledge because it demonstrates how knowledge can be an amalgamation created from created from previous cultural traditions and personal perceptions and values. Many people would consider the fashion industry, which is increasingly more prominent in our modern lives, as a branch of the Arts. However, by definition, this industry relies on people following a trend, which means they allow their individual perception and judgment be dominated by a shared knowledge or perception of fashionable. Interestingly, the strength of influence of the fashion industry holds is often strongly related to age. Teenagers are frequently targeted as customers, for instance. Therefore, does it then follow that the relationship between shared knowledge and individual knowledge varies according to