Before diving into what Clipboard Obedience is, take a second to glance through, and listen to, Mark Dice and some of the craziness he presents as a petition and still manages to get people to sign. The video linked is for repealing the Bill of Rights, something he does not actually believe in doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0he0cqHH20&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLa8S4GilqogQILnrvxLgZREFkebrMfJ3f
A few other individuals operate in the same manner as Mark Dice, but I believe the one man provides sufficient information for the topic. A friend, who will remain anonymous (but not THAT anonymous), and I, have been having an email conversation about this and he suggested that Clipboard Obedience is akin to Pluralistic Ignorance. Apologies for the second link, but Pluralistic Ignorance is an interesting concept by itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralistic_ignorance
To deal with the idea of Clipboard Obedience, here are some ideas on why The Clipboard is so important in petitioning the population:
1) Lack of a clipboard signals a lack of seriousness of the individual.
2) It is difficult sign anything without support for the paper, or pen. Laziness and impatience would kick in with the understanding of how hard it is to sign an unsupported piece of paper.
The following is just the enumeration of ideas that would lead someone to sign a petition, on a clipboard:
1) Easiness. Individuals may sign just because they think it'll only take 2 seconds.
2) Surprise. The petitioner is usually in an area that is uncommon to individuals standing around. Petitioning in such an area would leave the individual without sufficient time to adjust their train of thought enough to pay attention to what's being said.
3) Distraction: If the person has a phone in their hand, they aren't paying attention to anything being said by the petitioner.
4) Other Signatories (Pluralistic Ignorance possibly ties in here): If other names are on the petition, the illusion of the rationality of the petition is created.
5) Listening for Keywords / Lack of Familiarity with Petitioner: This is the least defined idea, and is based on my personal experiences. As an Army Veteran, I encounter plenty of linguistic difficulties when speaking with a new person. I do not know how they use their words. This lack of familiarity with the person will cause me to listen to certain words to grasp the broader understanding of what the stranger is saying. I do not doubt others can be tricked into signing petitions through use of certain words, regardless of the context.
6) Social Media Narcissism: I consider it to be normal for an individual to want to leave their imprint in the world (usually done through procreation). However, in the Age of Information, we now have MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other ME orientated websites, including all the petition based websites. It becomes common practice to leave a personal imprint in as many places as possible. This would have plenty of real world carry over.
7) Illusion of Authority: The clipboard itself tends to signify the authority of the holder. Here is every job I can think of in which a person has a clipboard: Doctors, nurses, teachers, researchers, political staffers, scientists, foremen, secretaries, coaches, shrinks, and so on. All positions in which authority is given over to the individual with the clipboard.
8) Lack of Expectation / Value of Privacy: This ties into Social Media Narcissism. We put our names on so many things beyond just the internet, like new employee paperwork, government forms, frequent shopper discount card forms and so on. Giving our name away so frequently to unknown persons and entities is a very frequent event in our lives.
That is the end of Clipboard Obedience today. I will revisit this after I have spent more time on the subject matter with my nameless amigo.
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