What techniques do other posters, here on LessWrong, use to monitor and counter these [conformity] effects in their lives?
Do something conspicuous, bizarre, and inconsequential, to establish yourself as a noncomformist, then take advantage of the self-consistency effect and the social expectation that you will continue to be weird. For example, I sometimes wear a cloak.
What techniques do other posters, here on LessWrong, use to monitor and counter these effects in their lives?
An obvious technique, which was mentioned in the video, is habituation: deliberately don't conform on things and it becomes easier.
I thought the point about how having something repeated by a single person is just as good as having many people say it was interesting. This seems like weak evidence that affirmations work, 'cause there's a chance that it wouldn't matter if you were the one repeating the thing to yourself.
A rather good 10 minute YouTube video presenting the results of several papers relevant to how conformity affects our thinking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrNIuFrso8I
The papers mentioned are:
Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology, 27(187), pp.17-22.
Asch, S.E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
Asch, S.E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 193(5), pp.31-35.
Berns, G.S., Chappelow, J., Zink, C.F., Pagnoni, G., Martin-Skurski, M.E., and Richards, J. (2005) 'Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity and Independence During Mental Rotation' Biological Psychiatry, 58(3), pp.245-253.
Weaver, K., Garcia, S.M., Schwarz, N., & Miller, D.T. (2007) Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: A repetitive voice can sound like a chorus. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(5), 821-833.
What techniques do other posters, here on LessWrong, use to monitor and counter these effects in their lives?
The video also lists some of the advantages to a society of having a certain amount of this effect in place. Does anyone here conform too little?