Don’t Get Swept Up by the Crowd | E-book (PDF & EPUB)

A practical e-book on forming your own opinion instead of following gossip, groups or social media. Real-life examples, a self-test and phrases to use.

Heard so much about someone that you feel you know them – yet you’ve barely spoken? This e-book shows how easily other people’s opinions become the glasses we see others through. And, above all, how to take them off.

Five people tell you to watch out for someone. You haven’t even talked to them yet, but from that moment on you read every expression differently. When they don’t say hello, you think: “So they were right.” When maybe they just didn’t see you.

Don’t Get Swept Up by the Crowd is a readable, human guide to thinking for yourself. It isn’t a psychology textbook. It’s more of a mirror, one that will often make you think: “Damn, I do that too.”

Inside you’ll find:

• why ten people repeating one story aren’t ten pieces of evidence,

• how gossip changes shape as it travels, and why the most extreme version spreads best,

• how to tell a fact from an interpretation, an assumption and a feeling (with an exercise and answers),

• why the loudest person in the room doesn’t always have the best information,

• how a group creates a “common enemy”, and how to spot it happening around you,

• how we join in with gossip without even realising,

• five questions to ask before joining a public pile-on on social media,

• what to do when the crowd turns on you,

• a checklist of questions that protect you from the crowd,

• ready-to-use phrases that stop gossip without a fight,

• a self-test with results: How easily does the crowd sweep you up?

Every chapter includes real-life examples and practical elements: Ask yourself, Quick test, Remember and Next time, try this.

Who it’s for: anyone who has ever taken on the opinion of a group, a friend or the internet before forming their own. Which means all of us.

Format: PDF (A5, 59 pages) and EPUB for e-readers. Also available in Czech.