Eating pizza and waiting for my flight to Europe, I observed a European family at a nearby table. The mother, grandmother and three small children were playing a repetitive “word and clap” game which triggered a childhood memory of a similar game, although in a different language.
From Yahoo! answers:
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select "it" for games and similar purposes. The rhyme has been around in various forms since the 1850s or earlier, and is common today in many countries. Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain its exact origin.”
Sitting in a circle, they each put their hands on top of the hands of the people to their right and left, palm up.
The song was simplistic, and with every word or syllable they rhymed one would “tag” the next person in line by clapping their own left hand with their left (momentarily removed from on top of the hand of the person to their right).
Whoever started the tagging was also the last to be tagged. The rhyme is known by heart by everyone at the circle, and yet, the kids were occasionally caught off-guard.
The song being very rhythmical and in sync with the clapping creates a pattern which is hard to break, programming the players to keep clapping and singing rather than escape the final “winning” tag.
Watching the children fall for this immediately after reading Robert Cialdini's book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion made me realize just how much humans are creatures of habit, and of how the same type of behaviour can be observed with adults playing the game of life.
Pinky.
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