herd effect

[GeneD]

The word "bandwagon" seems to have neutral connotation by and large, doesn't it? If so, is there any pejorative counterpart of it? Such situations are often ridiculous, so I guess there should be such a term. For example, in Russian we call such behaviour "herd effect". What about English?

 

[jutfrank]

The idea of jumping on a bandwagon almost always has negative connotations.

 

[probus]

An extremely pejorative version is to refer to people as lemmings. The idea that lemmings periodically commit mass suicide has apparently been debunked by science but lives on in the popular imagination

 

[J&K Tutoring]

We have a term similar to your "herd effect". We say 'herd instinct'.

 

[GoesStation]

The term herd effect has been seen increasingly often over the last few years in reference to vaccination. The mechanics of disease transmission and vaccination effectiveness mean that for any given disease and vaccine, vaccinating a certain percentage of the population will prevent further spread of the disease. The percentage required varies widely, from as high as 95% for measles to as little as 33-44% for influenza.

 

[GeneD]

An extremely pejorative version is to refer to people as lemmings. The idea that lemmings periodically commit mass suicide has apparently been debunked by science but lives on in the popular imagination

Never heard of this before. When I read your comment, I imagined the picture of lemmings committing mass suicide and nearly choked with laughter, frankly.

Thanks for the metaphor and the myth. Really interesting.

 

[Skrej]

Years ago, there was a video game called "Lemmings".

You began each level with a large but finite number of these sort of stylized little lemming creatures. The premise of the game was that for each maze level, you assigned various lemmings to certain sacrificial tasks to help navigate the larger herd safely through various pitfalls and traps. For each level, you had to have a certain percentage of your original count still alive at the end of the maze.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Sometimes you also hear flavor of the week:

Everyone's talking about Brexit these days. It seems to be the flavor of the week.

Lemmings get a bad rap, of course. They don't do that in real life.

 

[Tdol]

If you are jumping on the bandwagon, you are not demonstrating any great intellectual abilities.